The Beginnings of a New Belay-tionship
by lynnn20
Summary: RWBY College AU. Ruby is clumsy, Weiss is mean, you guys know how it goes. A hint of WhiteRose with a Rock Climbing twist.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N I couldn't get this story out of my head so I wrote it, and it was really easy to write so I finished it. It was supposed to be a one-shot but it came out pretty long so I decided to publish it in two parts. I know it's a little wordy, but I feel like most people don't understand climbing if they've never done it so I tried to be pretty detailed for some parts.**

**PS. I don't own RWBY, but I think you guys know that..**

Ruby was sitting on the stool at the desk goofing off on the computer when she noticed the time. Her head jolted up and she looked expectantly at the entrance of the Rec Center. Ruby was just in time to see Her. Since the beginning of the semester, every Tuesday and Thursday at precisely 3:38PM, She walked through the doors.

It was Ruby's second semester in a row with the 2-6PM shift at the Rock Wall on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She knew who the regular climbers were and when to expect a busy rush of people. As far as Ruby was concerned, this semester was going to be just as uneventful and happily predictable semester at the Rock Wall. That was until two weeks into the semester when Ruby had looked up from taking a group of newbies through orientation and found herself staring into the coldest, most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen.

By now, it was halfway through the semester, and Ruby had gotten used to seeing Her. Well, Ruby had at least gotten to the point where she didn't completely lose her train of thought and run into the person next to her every time she saw Her. Ruby still stuttered if she happened to be talking when the blue-eyed girl walked by, but she was at least able to finish most of her sentences now.

From her perch on the stool, at 3:38PM on Tuesday, Ruby's eyes followed the blue-eyed girl as she walked through the University's Rec Center and towards the locker rooms in the back area of the Rec Center, just as She always did. In ten minutes, She would walk back from the locker rooms, usually changed from a light blue skirt and heels to either black or dark blue knee-length tights and athletic shoes, had head up the stairs, presumably to one of the treadmills in the cardio station on the second floor.

Ruby knew this because She did it every Tuesday and Thursday. The same routine, always perfectly on time. It was actually really impressive how punctual the blue-eyed girl was.

Today was no different. Exactly 10 minutes later, the blue-eyed girl walked past the Rock Wall that was the center piece of the Rec Center and went up the stairs. All the while, Ruby's eyes discreetly followed Her. Just as the blue-eyed girl reached the top of the stairs and left Ruby's sight for good, Ruby's friend Juane walked up to the desk with a pair of rather smelly climbing shoes.

"Hey Ruby! Whatcha thinking about?"

"Uhh..nothing much, I just have a big paper coming up in class soon," Ruby quickly replied, which wasn't a lie, she really did. It just wasn't what she was thinking about. "You ready to return those shoes?"

"Yeah! Thanks! Will you be at practice tonight? I could use some beta on that 5.9 I've been working on."

Ruby smiled: Juane had always refused help when he first started climbing, but after a long talk with Pyrrha and a few climbing sessions together, he eagerly asked for help now in his desire to get better. Jaune had shown a lot of growth in the last few weeks.

Ruby pulled up the gear rental program and typed in a few commands before she responded, "Yeah, I can help talk you through it tonight! At this rate, we'll have you crushing 5.10's before May! And I got your gear checked back in, so you're good. Thanks Jaune!"

"Thanks Rubes! See ya later," the scraggly haired blonde responded with a cheery wave.

Ruby smiled as he walked off and got up from her perch to go walk around the Wall and check to see if any climbers needed a belay or some beta. She had an hour to kill, after all.

At exactly 4:59, Ruby strategically plopped herself down on one of the chairs surrounding the Wall that gave her a clear and unobstructed view of the area between the stairs and the locker rooms. Like clockwork, the blue-eyed girl walked down the stairs at 5:00 and Ruby's eyes followed Her as she began to talk with her friend and co-worker Blake.

The last hour of shift tended to be pretty slow, so Ruby was glad to be on shift with her friends Blake and Nora. Nora's slightly unpredictable personality and slightly crazy antics complimented Blake's persona well. That combined with Ruby's overall positivity and love for fun always made for an enjoyable shift that the three girls looked forward to. In Ruby's case, however, part of that excitement was also due to a certain blue-eyed girl.

After a long day of classes, work, practice, and homework, Ruby lay in bed thinking as she began to drift off to sleep. All Ruby could think about as she lay there was Her. Maybe it was slightly obsessive, but Ruby couldn't help but feel drawn to the girl. Ruby lay there, wondering what Her major was, what year She was, why She was always so on time, what was Her favorite color, and especially what Her name was. Finally, Ruby decided she couldn't take it any longer. She was going to find a way to talk to the captivating girl with ice blue eyes. Maybe Ruby could even get Her to climb. At the very least, Ruby was going to find out Her name the next time she saw Her.

_Hi! I'm Ruby, and I work at the Rock Wall. Your body looks perfect for rock climbing, you should come try it!_

_Ugh no Ruby, that sounds stupid, way to sound like a creep. Stupid social awkwardness._

_Hi! I'm Ruby. I work at the Rock Wall, and I've seen you walk by a few times, you should come try it next time you're here!_

_Okay..that's better, maybe that will work. Now just to find a way to approach Her.._

It was Tuesday, and Ruby was a mess of nerves. It was time for work and she still hadn't come up with a game plan. For the first time, Ruby wished she had the cool confidence and skill with words that her sister Yang had. It wasn't even like Ruby wanted to ask Her on a date, all Ruby wanted to do was start a conversation, just enough to get Her name. Ruby knew the chances of the blue-eyed girl being into girls was slim to none and that the chances of said girl being into Ruby's awkward self was even smaller. Ruby respected that. All Ruby wanted was to find out the girl's name so she could stop thinking of the girl as "Her". If she was really lucky, maybe she could make a new friend out of the conversation, and Ruby would respect the girl enough to leave it at that.

Trying to figure out what to say without sounding like an idiot distracted Ruby from most of her shift; it's a good thing belaying was such a repetitive motion that relied on muscle memory. Luckily for her climbers, Ruby could probably still belay safely in her sleep. Ruby went through the first half of her uncharacteristically busy shift in a daze, and eventually decided to go grab a bag of chocolate chip cookies from the vending machines near the locker rooms. As soon as things slowed down enough that she was sure Blake and Nora could handle things, Ruby quietly excused herself from the Rock Wall and headed towards the vending machines.

Since the Wall was mostly run by student-workers, part of a university funded program that helped students get funding for school by working, things at work were pretty relaxed. There weren't any official breaks while on shift, but you were allowed to bring snacks or go purchase them from the vending machine if you got hungry with the understanding that it didn't interfere with servicing participants. The grad student who served as the manager for the Wall was hardly ever around since they mostly did paper work in the back office, so Ruby and her co-workers were pretty much allowed to do as they pleased. It worked out really well since they all enjoyed their jobs and were happy to do what they were paid for.

As Ruby punched in the numbers that would give her a bag of cookies, Ruby glanced at her watch: 3:39. Ruby's eyes' got wide as she hurriedly grabbed her cookies from the machine. She was late! Ruby quickly turned around and double-timed it towards the entrance of the Rec Center. As she was rounding the corner that would put her in view of the Wall, Ruby looked down to check her watch again. When Ruby looked up, she found herself face to face with a pair of ice blue eyes. Ruby blinked in surprise and then suddenly found herself on the floor in a tangle of limbs.

"Ohmygosh, I'm so so so sorry. I didn't see you and I was –"

"What is wrong with you?! Why weren't you watching where you were going? You could seriously hurt someone like that! I'm already this close to being in a boot! You could have hurt me!"

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to! Why are you almost in a boot? Did I hurt you? Did I break your leg? Are you gonna be in a boot because of me?" screamed back a frightened Ruby.

"Ugh, no, you dolt. I have a stress fracture in my shin and my doctor is threatening to put me in a boot if it doesn't heal soon. I can't run if I'm in a boot! I'm already stuck in here using a stupid elliptical to help minimize the impact put on my leg. I can't let them take running away from me, it's the only thing that keeps me sane. The only time I'm ever free. I swear if you make it worse, I will ki—"

"You have a stress fracture and you're using the elliptical? Don't get mad at me for making it worse. You're doing that all by yourself, princess. If you want your stress fracture to heal faster, you should be in the pool, or at the very least on a bi— Wait, why aren't you always free? We live in America…" All the yelling was starting to get to Ruby and the first part came out a lot meaner than she had intended.

"You inconsiderate..ugh! I don't even know why I'm talking to you, why I even said anything! Just get out of my way and never speak to me again," the blue-eyed girl said as she shoved past Ruby.

"Wait, I didn't even get your name.." breathed out a defeated Ruby. So much for trying to make a new friend, the brown-haired girl thought to herself. Now She hates me.

Ruby went back to work, and not even the chocolate cookies she had bought could make her feel better. We live in America, gosh Ruby, how stupid could you get, the young girl thought to herself. Ruby had to make it up to the beautiful girl she had literally ran into.

Ruby checked her watch: 4:59. Perfect timing. She took a deep breath and walked determinedly towards the stairs just as the blue-eyed girl was walking down them.

Ruby walked up to Her with a straight back and confident gait as the other girl walked gingerly down the stairs with Her eyes focused on her feet.

Once she reached the bottom, the blue-eyed girl looked up and met Ruby's silver eyes, her face quickly going from passive to angry. Before She could open her mouth, Ruby quickly began to speak.

"Look, I just wanted to apologize properly, please don't yell. Just hear me out and if you still want you never have to speak to me again." Ruby paused to let the other girl yell at her again, but when nothing happened she continued. "I really didn't mean to run into you, I should have been watching where I was going. And I'm sorry about the stress fracture, I've had one before and I know how frustrating they can be. Also, what you said about being free when you run… I know the feeling, like you're the only person in the world and none of your problems matter anymore for that brief period of time. That's how I feel when I climb. It's better when I get to climb outside, but climbing indoors is a pretty good substitute on the weekdays. You should come try it sometime. Okay, I'm done now. I'm Ruby, by the way," the brunette said as she extended her hand.

"I guess I didn't make myself clear enough earlier: Never speak to me again, Dolt." And with that, the blue-eyed girl once again shoved past Ruby without giving her name.

Ugh, that did not go well. Ruby hung her head as she walked back to the Wall.

"Ruby, are you okay? What was that all about?" Blake asked Ruby with a concerned look on her face.

"Oh, well I ran into this girl earlier, like literally knocked her over ran into her, and I went to apologize again but she's still pretty upset.." Ruby responded as she slumped onto one of the benches near the desk. "She yelled at me a lot and I kinda yelled back cause I got scared but I just wanted to be her friend and I ruined it all cause I'm clumsy and awkward and say dumb things."

"Wait. You ran over Weiss Schnee and then yelled at her? Aww, man Ruby, I would have paid money to see that!"

"Who's Weiss Schnee?" responded a confused Ruby.

"You don't know? Weiss Schnee, daughter of the owner of the highly controversial Schnee-Mart? She's basically the future owner of the world's biggest retail company. The same company that is known for its horrid treatment of employees and suppliers, not to mention their complete lack of concern for the environment. Just because the company is basically a global monopoly, the company thinks it can do whatever it wants and bully others into doing what they say. Don't stress about it too much, Rubes, she's probably just a bully like her father."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Blake. Thanks." Despite Blake's revelation about the blue-eyed girl, Ruby still couldn't get the sad look that had crossed the heiress' face as when She had mentioned the stress fracture. Well, at least Ruby knew the girl's name now.

The rest of shift passed uneventfully, and Ruby momentarily forgot about her earlier altercation as she and Blake watched Nora be as reckless as possibly without actually breaking any rules expected to be followed the Rock Staff. This included throwing a couple of the pancakes she always carried around as snacks at their friend Ren asking if he wanted to play frisbee. Nora made sure to wait until Ren was belaying so that his hands would be full and he'd be forced to take a pancake to the face, to the amusement of everyone at the Wall. Technically, Nora probably shouldn't be doing that, but, seriously, who has the foresight to make a "no pancake throwing allowed" rule?

**A/N Part 2 is mostly typed up and ready to go, I'll publish it next weekend to give some time for reviews and such. I know I said it's a two-shot, but I do have ideas to continue the story, just not a lot of time. But, if you guys like this, maybe it'll encourage me to find time to write more. So review/follow to let me know how y'all feel? No promises though**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N For those of you following this story, I know I said it'd be up this weekend, but I had a bunch of stuff to do and spent an entire day competing in a climbing comp so I'm a day late. But a day isn't too bad, right? Anyways, I apologize and I hope y'all enjoy!**

* * *

Thursday afternoon came too quickly for Ruby. She dreaded seeing the look of hatred Weiss was bound to give her or, even worse, and probably more likely, act like Ruby didn't exist. Even after Blake's explanation of Weiss' family business, Ruby still couldn't help but want to be her friend. Besides, Blake's love for the environment (which had led to her choice to minor in Environmental Sciences along with her major in Nonprofit Business Administration) often led her to over exaggerate just how bad businesses and their owners were. At least Blake wouldn't be at work today to remind her of the incident since Blake only worked on Tuesdays.

Thursdays at the Wall tended to be even less busy than Tuesdays, so the trio on duty spent most of their time completing routine maintenance and house-keeping duties, only giving the occasional belay. Ruby, Pyrrha, and Fox finished their tasks by 3:30 and went off to spend the rest of their shift hanging out.

That was the great thing about working at the Rock. Everyone on staff was friends with one another, and the climbing community was pretty small, so chances were you had at least one friend climbing around while you were on shift, just like right now Jaune, Ren, and Nora were all there. Other than the weekly rope checks and making sure the area around the Rock stayed clean, working at the Wall was like getting paid to hang out and be the occasional belay slave.

Ruby was reflecting on this when while she sat at the desk working on making a flyer for the belay class coming up in a couple of weeks. She was struggling with the difficult decision of whether the letters should be red and outlined in black or black and outlined in red.

She finally decided it would be best to get Pyrrha's opinion. Ruby looked up to call her friend and noticed Pyrrha talking to Jaune as he belayed Ren up the wall. She thought better of interrupting her friend and decided to leave Pyrrha alone to flirt with the oblivious boy. Ruby wasn't always the most perceptive person, but even she couldn't figure out how Jaune could be so clueless.

Ruby looked back down to focus on her work and glanced at the clock on the bottom right hand corner of the screen: 3:38PM.

"Eek," Ruby squeaked as she quickly hopped off the bar stool and ducked behind the counter-like desk.

Ruby had decided that the best course of action would be to hide behind the desk and not see the heiress. This way, Ruby would never know if Weiss was going to ignore her or show outright hate. What you don't know can't hurt you, right? Reasoned the young brunette. The entirety of Ruby's plan consisted of "tying her shoe" until her watch said 3:40PM and she had no chance of seeing Weiss. When it was time for Weiss to come out of the locker rooms, Ruby would just hide on the opposite side of the Wall nearest the weight room until the blue-eyed girl was upstairs.

Ruby's genius plan was interrupted, however, when her watch only read 3:39PM by a cold voice.

"Does it always take you that long to tie your shoe?"

"Uhh…no, I just…" Ruby struggled with her words as she clumsily stood up. As she looked up, Ruby's eyes were greeted with a beautiful face marred only by a pale scar over the eye. "Weiss."

"Dolt," was Weiss' only response.

"Umm, are you here to yell at me again..?"

"No, I wouldn't want to waste my time. I'm here because I decided it would be a good idea for me to try to climbing this wall. It's on the University's bucket list or something."

"Ohh! Okay! Can you swipe your Student ID? Pic towards me, please!"

Weiss silently did as she was told.

"Awesome! I'll go grab you a harness and shoes and get you all setup!" Ruby breathlessly continued. "Whatsizeshoesdioyourear"

The blue-eyed girl blinked and stared blankly at Ruby. "What." Speaking to this small brunette girl was going to take all of her patience.

"Sorry… I speak really fast when I get nervous," Ruby sheepishly responded. "What size shoe do you wear?"

Weiss sighed, "Size 7 is good."

"Okay sweet, have you ever climbed or put on a harness before?"

"No."

"Okay, I'll walk you through it then," said Ruby as she turned around to go get a harness and shoes from the gear closet behind the desk.

As Ruby was explaining to Weiss that the small blue loop on the harness went to the front and which end was the top, Jaune walked up behind the blue-eyed girl clad in black tights and a light blue dry fit t-shirt with a white snowflake where one would usually find a frocket.

"You just put it on like a pair of pants, and make sure the waist band is tight and near your belly button. I'll go help you once you get it on and I finish checking Jaune's gear in!" Ruby finished as she nodded at Jaune.

"Hello there, Snow Angel," Jaune said as Weiss turned to go put her harness on in the open area where participants put their stuff.

"Get out of my way," Weiss responded as she continued walking.

"Aww man Rubes, what did I do wrong? How come I never get the girl?" Jaune asked as he swiped his ID.

"You'll get a girl one day Jaune," Ruby laughed as she glanced at Pyrrha. "Weiss is just a little on the frosty side."

"Thanks for the encouragement Ruby. I'll see you at practice tonight?"

"Of course! We've got core workout tonight!"

"Ugh, I'd forgotten about that! Looks like I'll be sore tomorrow. Oh well, see ya Ruby!"

Ruby waved to Jaune and then went to go return his gear to the closet. Once it was put away, she headed towards Weiss, calling to Pyrrha as she went, "Hey, can you watch the desk? I'm gonna go help a new climber."

"Of course," Pyrrha responded with a knowing smile. Ruby had always known Pyrrha noticed more than she let on. Judging by her smile, Pyrrha had noticed Ruby staring down Weiss every Thursday.

"Hey there," Ruby said as she approached Weiss.

"Hi."

"Sooo, your harness looks great, you put it on perfect. There's just one last step," Ruby continued nervously.

As Ruby explained to Weiss how to "double-back" her harness, the heiress felt strong hands touch the buckle on her waist and took in a sharp breath.

"Here, I'll show you cause it's kinda hard to explain. You grab the end of the excess webbing and feed it back through the opposite end of the buckle," said Ruby as she manipulated the harness. Ruby hardly dared breathe as she fed the waist strap back through the buckle. She didn't want to accidentally touch Weiss and get yelled at again, so she fed just enough of the strap through for Weiss to be able to grab it. "There, now you just pull it tight and you're good to go! Making sure you're double-backed is the most important part of putting on your harness. It basically locks you into your harness so it doesn't come undone when you're on the Wall."

Ruby led Weiss over to the easiest route on the Wall, a 5.6 jug ladder. "There's a couple of ways to do this. The way it's supposed to be done is you follow the route, which is marked by the colored tape. The other option is just grab whatever you want until you reach the top. But that's kinda boring and you look pretty strong, so I think you should try to follow the route. The rocks with blue tape under them are 'on'.

If you get stuck, just grab whatever you need to, but I think you'll be okay. Hands and feet on the rocks with blue tape tails. Got it?"

"Climb the ladder of rocks using only the rocks coded with blue tape. Got it." Weiss said with a hint of boredom.

"Perfect! Now I'm just gonna tie you in," Ruby said as she deftly maneuvered the rope in her hands and made some sort of interlocked loops in the rope about an arm and a half's length from the end. "Can you put this straight up through your two hardpoints? Bottom one first" asked Ruby as she handed Weiss the rope and pointed to the two small loops in the front of her harness.

Weiss did as she was told, glad Ruby had asked her to do it instead of Ruby trying to do it herself. The two "hardpoints" lay a few inches apart on the front of her harness. The bottom hard point was where the two leg loops attached and the top one was right at the center of her waist. Weiss did not think she could handle Ruby that close to her… personal space.

Once Ruby got the rope back, she pulled the rope further through the hardpoints until the interlocked loops she had made earlier lay less than an inch from the midpoint of the two hardpoints in Weiss' harness and then began folding the rope into the loops. "I'm tying what's called a figure eight follow-through knot. It gets tighter when weight is applied to it, which is why we use it for climbing. If you weight the rope, or fall, while climbing, the know gets tighter instead of coming undone."

At the mention of figure eight follow-through, Weiss realized that the interlocking loops were a "figure eight" and Ruby's "folding" was her somehow following the original figure eight with the end of the rope. When Ruby finished, she showed Weiss the knot, and the blue-eyed girl saw that it was still a figure eight, only it had two strands instead of one. The "open" end of the rope coming out opposite of her harness.

Ruby grabbed the excess rope at the other end and skillfully made a couple of loopy-things that ended with the excess rope being tied to the rope hanging down from the wall.

"This is called a keeper's knot, or a simple fisherman's knot," Ruby said. It just keeps the rope from flopping around in your face. Now you're all set! Just give me a few seconds to clip in so I can belay you. Once you reach the top, or just want to come down, just let go of the wall and let me know and I'll start lowering you. When I lower you, just keep your feet in front of you and either gently push off the wall of "walk" down. Basically, just use your feet to keep you away from the wall so you're not scraping your face against the wall the whole way down," Ruby said with a grin.

"I think I know what to do, I've seen people come down while using the elliptical upstairs," said Weiss.

"Great, then you can start climbing whenever you're ready!" As they had been talking, Weiss had watched as Ruby unclipped a carabiner with an ATC attached and reclip it to the larger loop in front of her harness that ran through the two hardpoints. Ruby then grabbed a bite of rope, fed it into the ATC, and then clipped the loop that resulted into the same carabiner. She finished by twisting the gate of the carabiner closed. Ruby didn't even look down at her waist once, holding eye contact with the heiress and grinning the entire time. Weiss had to admit, she was slightly impressed at how confident and smooth the clumsy and seemingly awkward brunette girl was being.

At Ruby's okay, Weiss began to scale the wall with minimal trouble, staying "on" the route the entire time and only pausing once in confusion. Ruby congratulated Weiss when she got down, but Weiss' only response was, "Are they all like that? It was boring."

Ruby just grinned and eagerly told her they weren't and that Ruby had just put her on this 5.6 to gauge her ability. After hearing this, Weiss consented to climb another, with the only stipulation that it had better be more interesting and pose some sort of challenge.

Ruby led Weiss over to one of the harder 5.7s. This time, Ruby talked Weiss through how to tie the figure eight knot and moved much more slowly so that Weiss could follow the movements of her hands. She also told Weiss that ATC stood for Air Traffic Controller and explained that the device used friction to drastically reduce the weight felt by the belayer. It explained how Ruby could belay people who outweighed her slight frame by 100lbs or more.

As Ruby was explaining, she noticed how interested Weiss looked and began to smile. Once Ruby had gotten both of them set up, she gave Weiss the okay to climb. Weiss struggled a little more with this route than the previous 5.6, and it took her a little bit to recognize the traverses across that this route featured, but Weiss didn't give up. With Ruby yelling encouragement from the ground, Weiss reached the top without falling once. It was by far the easiest Ruby had ever seen a newb make this 5.7 look.

"Are you sure this is your fist time climbing? You make it look so easy!" Ruby called out when Weiss was about 10ft from the ground.

"I already told you it was, Dolt," but this time Weiss spoke with what could only be described as a small smile on her face. "That was definitely better than the first one."

"Great! You feeling tired, or do you think you have another one in you?" Ruby asked with a toothy grin as Weiss untied herself from the rope.

"I'd like a drink of water, but I don't feel too tired just yet."

Ruby's face lit up even more. It actually seemed like the Ice Princess was enjoying herself. Weiss had even smiled! It was a small, but still, it was something, and it was nothing short of beautiful.

After Weiss had gotten some water, Ruby led her over to a 5.8 in the "cave". The Rock Wall at Ruby's University didn't have a whole lot of overhang, but most of it was in the cave. The Wall was free standing, a 50ft tall textured concrete monolith that was the center piece of the Rec Center. It was the first thing you saw when you walked in, and most people couldn't help but stare as they walked around it. The locker rooms and indoor pool were to the back left of the Wall, the weight room was directly to the right, and the basketball courts were to the back middle, between the locker rooms/pool area and the weight room. All the cardio equipment was located on the second floor, and the stairs lay directly to the left of the Wall. Several racquetball courts lined the walls to the front right of the Wall, across from the weight room. The space between the racquetball courts and weight room was filled with several ping pong tables.

The cave was the front faces of the Rock Wall that faced the Rock desk. It was easily the most intimidating part of the Wall. It consisted of three faces of rock making two opposing dihedrals, kind of like a rectangle with an opening instead of a fourth face. Instead of going straight up at a 90o angle or more like the rest of the wall, this part of the Wall went up at more of an 70o angle, and steeper in some parts. When climbing in the cave, you weren't only trying to climb straight up, you had to engage your muscles just to stay on the wall.

"We don't put anything easier than a 5.8 in the cave due to the amount of strength it takes just to stay on the wall here. Technique-wise, it's a pretty straight forward route, but you're kind of short, so it may be a little reachy," Ruby explained to Weiss. At Weiss' scowl at the word "short" the young girl quickly added, "But you're totally strong, so you shouldn't have any problem!"

Weiss' scowl softened and Ruby offered to let Weiss tie herself in based on what she had learned from the 5.7. Ruby offered Weiss the climber's end of the rope and watched carefully as Weiss attempted to make the initial figure eight. It took Weiss a couple of tries, but she got it without any prompting from Ruby and went on to tie the follow through. Ruby quickly got distracted by the look of fierce concentration on the blue-eyed girl's face. Luckily, Weiss was so focused on her knot that she didn't notice. Ruby shook her head and went back to focusing on Weiss' slender hands. Ruby hadn't been this distracted by a girl since, well since her ex. It was weird for a girl she hardly knew to have this effect on her.

Ruby was shaken from her thoughts by Weiss holding out her knot and looking at Ruby expectantly. Ruby stepped up to Weiss and gently gabbed the knot from her hand, brushing Weiss' fingertips as she did so. Ruby was too focused on the knot, making sure Weiss was safe, to notice the rush of pink warmth that flooded the Ice Princess' face at the contact. With Ruby this close, Weiss could smell a faint hint of rose petals wafting from her hair and Weiss felt her heart begin to beat a little bit faster. She attributed it to the adrenaline that must be flowing through her body at the thought of climbing the overhang.

All of this went completely unnoticed by an oblivious Ruby as she checked over her ATC so Weiss could begin to climb.

Weiss had no problem with the first half of the route. She could definitely feel the strain of being on the overhanging wall, but every move was perfectly manageable. That is until she came to a point where no matter what she did, her right hand was about 5 inches short of the next hold. Weiss' left foot was resting on a rock below her, and her right foot was on a hold just below her waist, her knee bent and jutting out to the right at about a 60o angle from her waist. Her left hand was holding her to the wall with a rock that was pretty much level with her face and to the left. Weiss' left foot was tiptoeing and her right hand was fully extended, but she just couldn't reach.

"See Weiss, this is exactly what I meant when I said you were kinda short!" Weiss heard the grey-eyed girl who was belaying her yell up at her. "Don't worry, I'm not much taller than you, so it happens to me all the time! You need to shift all your weight over to your right foot. Then just push up on it, kinda like you're doing a one-footed squat. Your left hand is just there for balance. Use it and engage your abs to keep your body as close as you can to the wall from the waist up. All the force to go up will be in your leg! You got this!"

Weiss had no choice but to listen to Ruby's directions and gave it a try. She shifted her weight over and pulled her body close enough to the wall that her face was practically scraping up against it. The, she closed her eyes and pushed off her right foot as she extended her right hand.

With her a shocked look in her face, Weiss found her hand making contact with the previously out of reach hold. Ruby cheered and the heiress of Schnee-Mart continued climbing. Maybe that clumsy dolt knew what she was doing after all.

Weiss had to perform the one-footed squat movement several other times, on both her right and left sides, as well as a few other strong moves, in order to reach the top. But the heiress didn't fall once, and it felt good.

Ruby congratulated Weiss on the way down, saying she had never seen anyone climb so well on their very first day. Weiss couldn't help but let out a true smile as she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, and Ruby couldn't help but notice just how breathtaking that smile was.

As Weiss untangled herself from the rope, Ruby couldn't help but remark with a smirk, "Not bad, for a princess."

"And you're not a bad coach, for a dolt" Weiss quipped back. This time, however, her voice lacked its usual coldness and her ice blue eyes showed warmth. There was even a smile grin on her face. Ruby just smiled.

As Ruby tied the rope up, Weiss admitted she would probably be sore tomorrow, and not just in her arms. Her legs and abs felt like they would be sore, as well. Ruby laughed and told her that was perfectly normal. Climbing was a full body workout.

Once Weiss finished taking off her harness and shoes, the duo went back to the desk together so that Ruby could check Weiss' stuff back in.

"Hey Ruby," Weiss used her name for the first time softly as she swiped her student ID. "You were right, I really do feel free when I'm up there."

Ruby's face broke into her biggest smile yet that day. "Well, if you want to come back, we're open every day, 2-10 PM!" Ruby's huge grin turned into a shy smirk as she added, "And I'd love to belay you again, if you'd want… I work-"

"Tuesday and Thursday, every week. I know," Weiss finished for Ruby. "I'll see you Tuesday, Ruby."

With that, Weiss turned and walked off so that Ruby couldn't see the smile that played across her lips.

As Ruby watched the blue-eyed girl walk away, Ruby tried to figure out how Weiss knew she worked every Tuesday and Thursday. Ruby's confused face transformed into a smile when the realization hit her. Weiss had noticed her, too.

* * *

**Well, that's that. And for those of you who don't know, a frocket is a front pocket on a t-shirt. I'm not really sure if that's a legit word or if it's something my friend made up, so I figured I'd make that clear. Reviews are appreciated, especially if you have an opinion/question on how I explained the climbing aspect of the story! I'm still worried I got a little bogged down in the details. Stay awesome guys.**

**-Lynn**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Props for this chapter go to the 3 people who reviewed this story, I probably would have left it as a two-shot if it hadn't been for their encouragement, so thanks guys!**

Happiness. It was such a controversial word. What did it mean, truly? Was it the Christmas morning with your family around the Christmas tree? Was it chocolate chip cookies straight from the oven? Or was it something more, like Aristotle claimed? Ruby had read about it in her philosophy class, listened to her professor lecture about it in class. Ruby was still trying to figure all that out, but right now, to her, happiness was Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Wall from 3:45-5:00 PM.

It had been two weeks since Wiess' first climb at the Wall, and Weiss had faithfully come to climb every Tuesday and Thursday since. This past Thursday, Weiss had even waved at Ruby on her way to the locker rooms to go change. Ruby had gotten so excited she almost fell off of the stool she was sitting on in her haste to wave back. Since Weiss' first climb, the duo's conversations had grown from climbing related to casual almost friend-like conversations. Ruby could tell Weiss was still reluctant to let her in, but she was getting closer and closer to chipping through the ice walls that Weiss surrounded herself with. Ruby could tell by the more and more frequent smiles that crossed the usually stoic girl's face.

Ruby had learned that Weiss had a class right before she came to the Rec Center, which is why she always went to go change in the locker rooms. Her first day climbing, however, Weiss's class had been cancelled, so she had come to the Rec Center already dressed in her work out clothes. Now, Ruby had to wait until 3:45 for Weiss to approach the desk. But it was well worth the wait.

It was Tuesday, and Weiss walked by at her usual time of 3:38 PM wearing mid-thigh length khaki shorts and a loose white button up shirt that was made of some type of clingy material. The shirt somehow managed to cling to Weiss' figure in all the right places to show off her slender body while still being loose, professional, and, well, perfect.

Needless to say, even though Ruby was expecting a friendly wave from Weiss, she still tripped over her own two feet on her way to belay Jaune when she saw the heiress. But, Ruby managed to wave back and Weiss' small smirk only grew at the sight of the brunette's clumsiness.

"That dolt," Weiss muttered under her breath.

Once Weiss got back from changing, she went to the Rock desk to do the usual checkout process. However, today Ruby was still belaying Jaune, so she went to go say 'hi' while she waited for Ruby to finish.

"Hey, Ruby."

"Weiss! Hey! How was class?"

"It was good. We have a midterm next Tuesday, so the professor just spent most of the class time to tell us what to expect."

"Ohh, cool. Hey, what class do you have before this, anyways?"

"Strategic Management, in the business school."

"With Port?!"

"Yes. Wait. How did you know that?" Weiss quietly started to wonder if the Ruby had someone following her of something.

"I have a strategy test on Tuesday, too! I have Port for his morning class, and we did like the same thing y'all did." Ruby said just as Jaune was reaching the top of his route.

"Ohh, okay. I'm actually kind of worried about that test. It sounds like the test will be over the book, but all he does in class is tell us his life stories of the army or that business he owned."

"Yeah, I know what you mean! I have SO much reading to do!"

"Hello again, Snow Angel," Jaune interrupted the girls as Ruby lowered him to the ground.

"I think I'll just get Blake to check me in. I'd like to try a 5.10 today when you're done, if that's okay with you, Ruby."

"Yeah, of course Weiss," Ruby replied with a smile.

"She just completely ignores me every time," Jaune sighed as Weiss walked away.

"Maybe if you talked to her like she's an actual instead of trying to hit on her every time you see her…"

"You're right Rubes, I'm just trying to be confident, but I guess that's not Wiess' type. Ohh well, it looks like Blake has Weiss all ready to go, you probably shouldn't keep her waiting. I'll get Blake to check my gear back in, too."

"Okay Jaune, I'll see you at practice!"

"Yeah! Hey Ruby, put in a good word for me with Weiss? You seem to be the only person she even sorta likes."

"Of course, Jaune. I'm sure you're her type once she gets to know you." _You're more her type than I am at least._ Ruby finished in her head.

Jaune didn't see the flash of sadness in her eyes. "Thanks Rubes!" the blonde boy said with a smile as he headed towards the Rock desk.

Ruby tied up the rope Jaune had used and then went to Weiss to ask what 5.10 she wanted to try first. Together, they decided on a 5.10 on the backside of the Wall, and Weiss returned to their conversation from earlier as she began to tie herself in.

"So you said you had Port's strategy class. That's a capstone business course. Only senior year business majors are allowed to take that class." Somehow Weiss' statement seemed more like a question, and for the first time since Ruby had known her, the blue-eyed girl looked genuinely confused.

"I know? Why do you look so confused?"

"That means you must be senior. And a business major." Her statements still sounded more like questions, as if she couldn't quite wrap her head around the facts.

"Uhhm…yes?"

"But you look like you're barely a freshman! Why didn't you tell me? This whole time I thought you to be a sophomore at most!" All or Weiss' usual composure was gone and she was practically yelling.

"You never asked?"

Weiss just glared at Ruby's response.

"Uhh, well I guess I do look really young for my age. I get told that all the time. Plus a skipped a couple grades in Elementary. Apparently my reading and math skills were off the charts when I came back from spending a few years at a private school in the UK."

Weiss was surprised to find that Ruby was a senior, but the more she thought about it, the more she saw the maturity and comfortableness the brunette girl had carried herself with on Weiss' first day of climbing. From what she had seen over the last two weeks, Ruby seemed to be the most in charge of her co-workers, despite their bumbling first encounter. It wasn't that Ruby bossed the others around, it was just that when she talked, the others listened and she was always the first one the staff went to with their questions. Now that she let herself see it, Weiss noticed the looks of respect even the wild Nora gave Ruby. No one would afford that kind of honor to a freshman, no matter how nice they may be. Weiss was still confused about the fact that Ruby was a business major and that seemed to have spent a significant time overseas, but that conversation could wait for later. Right now, Weiss had to know one more thing before she got on the Wall.

"Ruby, I've never seen you climb before…"

"Yeah, I've been doing a lot more cross-training so I can get more powerful to make up for my height so I usually only climb at practice?" Ruby still wasn't sure if Weiss was asking her questions or not.

How hard do you climb Ruby." Now Weiss' question sounded like a demand.

"Uhh, solid 5.11a/b and can flash some 5.11c/d and one-fall easier 5.12s."

Weiss knew enough about climbing by now to know that 'flash' meant to climb a route cleanly (without falling or grabbing unmarked holds) your first time on it, like she had done the first day she had climbed. She also knew that you had to be very good just to work on 5.12s, most people having several falls before they reached the top even after working on it for weeks.

"Ruby, just how good are you at climbing?"

"Well, Blake always says I'm the best here, but she's just as good as I am and this guy Sun climbs really well, kinda like a monkey actually, and Ren and Nora are pretty good too and Yang is definitely a better boulderer than me."

Even though the Wall was usually pretty slow during Weiss' climbing time, she knew that at least 20 different people frequented the Wall every day. From what she understood of Ruby's ramblings, Ruby was probably at least in the top 5 of the at least 100 climbers that took climbing seriously at Beacon University. Leave it to this strange girl to downplay just how good she was. There was definitely more to Ruby than the younger girl let on.

Weiss pondered this as she turned to the wall, effectively ending their conversation. "Climbing."

"Climb on." Ruby automatically responded as she double checked that Weiss was tied in properly and that she was ready to belay.

Weiss got to the top of the 5.10, only falling twice, and Ruby smiled proudly as she lowered Weiss down. The blue-eyed girl was improving rapidly, and it looked like she would be able to challenge Ruby pretty soon. Ruby couldn't wait and almost shook with excitement at the thought. Blake was a great belay partner, but she and Sun had started climbing together a lot more and Weiss' climbing style was definitely closer to Ruby's. Blake liked that slab-y balance-y stuff way too much for Ruby's liking. Ruby swore the black-haired girl was more like a cat than a human sometimes.

Once Weiss touched ground, Ruby unclipped herself from her ATC and the rope. When she looked up, she saw Weiss struggling to untie herself.

"Here, let me help! I know a trick," Ruby said as she took a step forward. The figure eight follow through was designed to get tighter when you put weight on it, so when Weiss fell on the rope, she applied significant force to the knot causing it to get tighter than she was used to. This was the first time Weiss had fallen on a route, so she wasn't used to it.

As Ruby reached for the knot, Weiss looked up to see the top of Ruby's head less than a foot from her face. Weiss smelled the now familiar scent of Ruby's shampoo and for the first time she noticed just how soft the brunette girl's perfectly tousled hair looked. Weiss could even see some strands of reddish hair that she had never noticed in Ruby's hair before.

"If you bend the knot back and forth, it'll loosen up. It's called 'breaking' the knot," Ruby said as she bent the knot between her hands, one hand at the top of the knot and the other on the bottom. "See?"

As Ruby looked up, her silver eyes met blue.

In the moment their eyes met, time seemed to stop for both girls. Ruby took in Weiss' flawless alabaster skin, the slight flush in her cheeks left over from her climb, the thin trickle of sweat that caressed the pale scar that ran vertically across Weiss' left eye.

Ruby suppressed the desire to wipe the drip of sweat from Weiss' face as she fumbled to recover her thoughts.

"I think you should be able to untie it now," Ruby managed to get out as she let go of the knot and quickly took a couple of steps back.

"Thanks, Ruby," Weiss said as coldly as ever.

Weiss finished untying herself from the rope, and she and Ruby continued their conversation as usual in between climbs. Over the next 3 routes, Weiss learned that Ruby was in their university's Sport Management Program in the business school, as well as a minor in philosophy.

Ruby explained how she had first considered a computer engineer or something in that field because it had seemed cool and she loved playing video games, but her passion for sports had won. Ruby had played varsity just about everything at her high school. Her favorite had been basketball, but Ruby had been especially talented in Track &amp; Field. Weiss learned that Ruby had gone to the State meet three out her four years in high school in the 100m and 200m sprint. Ruby had expected to continue her career in college, but a stress fracture senior year had ruined any prospects.

After hearing about Ruby's stress fracture, Weiss could tell it was still a sensitive subject, so she dropped the conversation. In return, Weiss told Ruby about herself. Weiss was a Professional Sales major with a second major in Management. She said it was because she needed to know how to manage people as well as sell her ideas whenever it came time to take over her dad's company. Weiss even revealed how she used to play tennis at her dad's insistence even though she always enjoyed long-distance running more. It was only a small detail, but the blue-eyed girl surprised herself by revealing any hint about how forceful her father could be to this girl who was barely more than a stranger.

Ruby and Weiss had been sitting on one of the benches debating the benefits of sprinting over long-distance running for at least 10 minutes when Ruby finally glanced at her watch. 5:16. This was the second time in a row Weiss had stayed past her usual 5 o'clock time limit just to talk with Ruby. The idea that had been lingering in the back of the younger girl's mind since she had learned that she and Weiss shared a class seemed like it just might actually work.

"Hey Weiss, remember that test with Port you mentioned earlier?" Ruby started nervously after finally conceding the debate to Weiss.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I was thinking, maybe we could study for it together?" Ruby struggled to keep her words slow enough that Weiss could understand them.

"Sure, that sounds like a good idea. When were you thinking of studying?"

"Probably this weekend, but I have a group meeting to work on a project. My group didn't pick on a final time before I got on shift, but I should know when I check my phone after work. If you, uhh, give me your phone number, I can text you some times when I get off…?"

"That works. Just make sure you look over the material. I refuse to waste my time teaching the class when I could be studying." Weiss said as she began to take her harness off.

"Course not!" Ruby replied. "C'mon Weiss, I'm not _that_ bad of a student!"

"At least not always!" the brunette quickly added at the look on Weiss' face. "I bet by the time we study together, I'll know the material better than you!"

Weiss smirked as she responded to Ruby, "I'll hold you to that."

Ruby groaned as she realized what she had said, but her smile quickly returned at the prospect of getting to spend more time with Weiss away from the Wall.

As Weiss checked her gear in, she silently handed Ruby a professional looking business card with an ice-blue snowflake in the top right hand corner followed by 'Schnee Enterprises' and Beacon University's trademark BU in the top left. The bottom left corner read 'Weiss Schnee' with her majors listed underneath. On the bottom right corner of the business card lay Weiss' email address and cell phone number.

**A/N Aww look at Ruby all grown up and getting pretty girl's numbers! Please forgive any grammar mistakes, I'm literally posting this as I'm running out the door to go catch my flight for the CCS National Climbing competition this weekend. My goal for this story is updates every 2 weeks even though this one was closer to three. Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome! Thanks for reading**

**-Lynn**


	4. Chapter 4

The last thirty minutes of Ruby's shift felt like the longest thirty minutes she had ever had in her entire life. Even Blake, usually indifferent to most things, started to worry about the younger girl.

"Ruby, are you okay? You seem extra distracted today, and you just tied that girl's knot wrong twice before you got it right."

"Yeah, I'm great! Just ready to get off."

"Does this have something to do with that Schnee girl? You've been all over the place since she left. Did she yell at you again? I know she's seemed a lot nicer recently, but I knew she couldn't be trusted to be anything other than a bully." Blake may put off an apathetic exterior, but if she was to be honest, Blake had grown to care deeply for the innocent and fun-loving girl she had befriended over the last 4 years. And she really didn't like Schnees.

"No, Blake! She wasn't mean at all! She's actually really nice, once you get passed the whole ice-y princess exterior."

"I'll take your word for it, Ruby. But I don't want a repeat of Cinder."

"Aww Blake, it's not even like that. Weiss and I are just friends, and she's a good person, I can tell!"

"You said Cinder was a good person, too," objected Blake. "Rubes, I know we don't talk about it much, but it really hurt us to see you like that…"

Ruby saw the hurt in Blake's eyes and felt her heart constrict as she remembered her sophomore year of college.

Ruby had met Cinder at a track meet her junior year of High School. Cinder had almost beat Ruby in the 200m at Regionals, and it had been an incredible race that had the entire stadium standing and cheering the two girls on. After the race, both girls congratulated each other and immediately hit it off. When they met again at the State meet, they exchanged numbers and stayed in contact.

Senior year, they learned that they would be going to colleges within an hour of each other and they promised to meet up sometime. Once they began attending school, they started to meet up consistently on weekends to hang out. Cinder even expressed interest in transferring to Beacon after visiting Ruby and seeing the campus.

By second semester of freshman year, Ruby and Cinder were dating. Everything had started out great, but eventually Cinder took advantage of Ruby's trust and cheated on her, blaming the distance. Ruby forgave Cinder, telling herself that when Cinder transferred to Beacon at the end of the semester, it wouldn't be a problem anymore. Ruby's relationship went quickly from happy to full of pain and manipulation, however, shortly after Cinder switched schools. Cinder continued to betray Ruby's trust, flirting with whomever she pleased and, on more than one occasion, physically cheating. Cinder somehow managed to spin each occurrence off as it happening due to some fault of Ruby's, and she became more and more possessive of Ruby as time went on.

Eventually it got to the point where Cinder had tried to convince Ruby to cut Blake and Yang out of her life, reasoning that if the duo didn't like her, Ruby couldn't even talk to them without betraying her.

Ruby had finally drawn the line there and ended things with Cinder, but the idea that Ruby could have done that to them still hurt Yang and Blake to this day.

"Blake, that's not going to happen. Never again. I promise. And besides, it's not like that with Weiss. We're just friends, and besides, she's probably not into girls, even you can't argue that one," the brunette said with a tentative smile, trying to bring some humor into the suddenly serious conversation.

Blake softened, "I just don't want to see you hurt like that again Ruby. We both know you can't help but only see the good in people, we both know that." The raven haired girl smiled and finished, "You're right, Weiss does seem nicer than I gave her credit for."

"I learned my lesson Blake! Promise!" Ruby tried to reassure Blake with her biggest smile. "Besides, the only reason I got her number was so that we could study together!"

"Ohhhh, so it's a study date?" Blake teased.

"Blaaake! Not. Like. That." As she spoke, Nora came around the corner.

"Pancakes!"

"Ohh, that means we're off!" yelled Ruby, eager to end her conversation with Blake. She ran to the back of the desk and grabbed her bag, instantly reaching for her phone. "See ya Blake! Enjoy your pancakes Nora!"

"This conversation is not over, Ruby Rose! I know where you live!"

Dealing with Yang and Blake when she got home was going to be the exact opposite of fun. Ruby raced out of the Rec Center and hopped on her trusty board, Crescent Rose. The red and black board sped quickly across campus as Ruby rushed to beat Blake home. If she could just make it back to her room before Blake had a chance to her, maybe, just maybe, she could avoid talking about her ex for another day or two. Especially since Yang had basketball practice until late every night this week.

The brunette girl stumbled with her keys as she struggled to unlock the door. The locked door was a good sign: Blake must not be home yet. After several tries, Ruby was finally able to get her keys straightened out and was able to unlock the door.

Her eyes slowly adjusted to the cool, dark apartment living room she, Yang, and Blake shared. Ruby silently cheered as her eyes scanned the empty spot by the kitchen table where Blake usually kept her bike.

"You ran out on our conversation earlier, Ruby Rose."

"Ahh! Holy Dust Blake. You almost gave me a heart attack!" Ruby spun around and finally saw Blake on the other side of the couch, her bike sitting in the hallway that led to her room. "Why are the lights off? And why are you so quiet?"

"I had to pee so I just went straight to my room? And I wasn't any quieter than I usually am, Ruby." Blake countered nonchalantly.

"Yang is right, you are like a ninja cat. Speaking of Yang…" Ruby gave her best puppy dog eyes, silently pleading Blake not to tell Yang about their conversation.

"Fine, I won't tell her. But you know she's gonna find out with or without me."

"I know Blake, but I want to tell her myself. And besides, there's nothing to 'find out' about. Just two friends, going to go study."

"Keep telling yourself that, Rubes," Blake responded as she turned to head back into her room.

An hour later, Ruby emerged from her room with a small grin, happily humming to herself. Weiss had agreed to meet Ruby on Thursday night at the Wall, about 20 min before the end of practice so she could see what the team was like. Afterwards, they planned to head to the local coffee shop near campus to study. Weiss had even said she was looking forward to it! Ruby had decided to celebrate with a large glass of milk and her go to snack when she was too lazy to heat up the oven: chocolate chip cookie dough.

**A/N And that's chapter 4! Sorry for the delay guys, figuring Cinder's character out and her place in this story was really hard for me to do. That plus finals and graduating and having less than two weeks to find an apt and move out of state for a job..and I may or may not have accidentally packed up my spiral with all the notes for this story and just found it this weekend. Needless to say, those of you who manage to update on time and do life are incredible. I'm really hoping to update this more consistently as I get more comfortable with the new job. But until next time, I'd love to hear what y'all think!**

**-Lynn**


	5. Chapter 5

The Wall was bustling with activity when Weiss showed up. It was probably the busiest she had seen the place with over fifty people spread out doing various things throughout both the top rope and bouldering areas. It was hard to tell what was going on, but it looked like they were doing some type of circuit training.

Weiss hadn't expected the place to be so busy. She quickly went to go find Ruby, or someone else she knew, so that she could get help sorting the mess of people out.

The blue-eyed girl opted to try out the bouldering cave first since most people seemed to be just standing around instead of working out. As she approached the enclosed area, Weiss immediately recognized a flash of long red hair that she knew belonged to one of Ruby's co-workers. Looking closer, she noticed the short-haired brunette laying on the mats with her head resting on Pyrrha's leg.

Walking up to the girls, Weiss felt a pang of emotion she couldn't explain. It wasn't anger or hurt or sadness, but something altogether different, yet altogether the same all at once. It was something she'd never felt before. Weiss brushed it off as her uncharacteristically greasy dinner and began to maneuver around the crowd of people that filled the relatively small area. Right before she reached Ruby, however, the short girl stood up with her back to Weiss and began walking towards the bouldering wall.

Weiss paused in her tracks directly behind Pyrrha. The lean girl sensed someone behind her, however, and quickly turned around in confusion. Her confusion turned immediately into a smile when she noticed the usually commanding Weiss Schnee looking slightly lost and confused.

"Hey We—" Pyrrha stopped mid-sentence as the so called Ice Princess shook her head and put a finger to her lips.

"I've never seen Ruby climb before," she quietly explained, "if she sees me she'll stop and insist on making me meet everyone."

Pyrrha nodded in understanding and they both turned their attention to the bouldering wall. "She's surprisingly graceful when she climbs," Pyrrha softly chuckled.

"I find that hard to believe, considering how we met." Despite her annoyed tone, Weiss smiled softly at Pyrrha. By now, the story of how Ruby had literally run over Weiss Schnee was practically famous among her co-workers, and probably half the rock wall community by association. This story had been added to the apparently long list of klutzy calamities the girl had caused. Just earlier that day, Blake had suggested asking about the time Ruby had knocked her herself out running into a speed limit sign last year.

Just as they finished their exchange, Ruby sat down at the bottom of the wall in the most overhung part of the cave.

"She's climbing a V5, it's blue on white" Pyrrha added helpfully.

Weiss picked out the trail of white tape with blue tails and saw that it travelled across the length of the overhang before it went up. This particular V5 would have Ruby completely upside down for over half of the problem before she went up and was able to travel up a more vertical face of rock. Weiss remembered how difficult it had been to stay on the minor overhang of the top rope wall. This particular problem was going to have Ruby climbing what was basically a ceiling that was 4 feet off the ground with holds that resembled rocks. The sheer amount of ab and arm strength it must take to stay on the wall genuinely impressed Weiss. When Ruby started climbing, though, Weiss was even more impressed.

The brunette moved more fluidly than Weiss had ever considered possible for the girl. Each powerful move flowed smoothly into the next, and even the reaches that looked to be completely out of her reach were executed perfectly. The most impressive move was just as Ruby was about to leave the overhang. The move had her going up and to the right at the same time, forcing her to maneuver her body around the sharp curve that signified the transition from the almost horizontal face of rock to the mostly vertical face. It looked like a good hold, but there was no way Ruby's arm could reach that far.

It looked like Ruby knew it, too. She paused just before the big move and took a deep breath. Then, with a look of fierce concentration, the small girl lunged completely off the wall, letting her hands and feet leave their respective holds and extending her arm as far as she could.

Just when it looked like she was about to fall, her hand latched onto the hold and stuck there as the rest of her body continued its momentum and continued swinging to the right. With a loud thump, Ruby's feet hit the wall, and she hung there for a second, her right hand gripping tightly to the deep jug of a hold and feet planted on the wall in what was called smearing, using the friction between her climbing shoes and the textured wall to support some of her weight.

After quickly recovering her breath, the girl matched both hands in the big jug, repositioned her body, and continued to move up the wall. Now that the wall was more vertical, the holds were much smaller, reflecting the difficult grade of the climb. To Weiss, it looked like Ruby was only using her fingertips and the very ends of her toes to climb, bending and curving her body to perfectly match her center of balance to the direction and positioning of the trail of rocks leading to the top of the wall.

At this point, Ruby was only about 8 feet off of the ground due to the long horizontal traverse, and just about everyone in the bouldering cave was watching her. Just two moves from the top, Weiss gasped as Ruby's foot blew off a tiny nub of a hold and the brunette came crashing to the ground.

Weiss felt the instinct to run up to the younger girl to see if she was okay, but before she made a decision to move, the brunette sprang up with a huge grin. The thick squishy mats that covered the entire floor of the bouldering cave had done their job.

"Pyrrha, it's perfect!" Ruby yelled. Upon recognizing the short girl next to her co-worker and friend, the brunette quickly added, "Oh hey Weiss! I shoulda known you'd be here early! Sorry I made you wait."

"It's okay, I enjoyed watching you fall," Weiss said playfully.

Ruby, and Weiss and Pyrrha by extension, were the center of attention after the spectacular fall. The crowd laughed and congratulated her on the attempt Ruby before letting her join her friends.

"Before I take you around, Weiss, what'd y'all think? I just finished it before practice!"

Weiss looked at Ruby in confusion, "Finished what? You fell. It doesn't count?"

"She finished putting up the route. Ruby's a setter for the Wall, has she not told you?"

"No, what's a setter?"

"Sorry Weiss, I hadn't even thought to mention it before. Basically, all the holds on both walls can be taken out and replaced. We have a team of setters who are in charge of taking down and replacing routes with new stuff every so often so no one gets bored climbing the same thing over and over again. I'll explain it better on the way to study! But for now, let's go check out the rest of practice before it's over! Pyrrha, can you run my problem when you get a chance? I need to know how it runs for someone with longer reach. I'm worried the dyno will be too easy." Ruby said all of this very quickly, hardly taking in a breath.

"Yeah, I'll check it out and text you about it later tonight."

"Thanks Pyrrha! And thanks for closing up practice today since I'll be leaving a little early, and don't forget to remind everyone about our competition next weekend."

"I have it covered Ruby," Pyrrha chuckled, "you already told me multiple times what to do since Wednesday. Now go show Weiss around!" At her last words, the red head playfully pushed Ruby towards the exit of the bouldering area.

Weiss felt that same weird feeling from before clutch her stomach when she saw how playful Ruby and Pyrrha were with each other, but before she had a chance to analyze the feeling, Ruby grabbed her wrist and practically dragged her out of the bouldering cave.

Ruby spent the next ten minutes introducing an overwhelmed Weiss to anyone and everyone at the Wall and explaining how practice worked. Tuesday practices, which started later, were for hanging out and casual climbing so that the team could bond. Thursday practices, however, were a lot more structured. Thursday's varied, but today it was set up into four stations: laps, abs, boulder/rest, and arm strength. Everyone spent twenty minutes at each station with a five minute rest in between to switch stations and grab a quick drink of water. Since practice was two hours long, that left just enough time at the end of practice for some quick announcements.

According to Ruby, Pyrrha was in charge of the ab workout of the day, laps and bouldering were up to the climber's discretion, and the arm workout regime was created by huge kid name Yatsuhashi. Weiss had thought the 6' 5" boy was absolutely terrifying until Ruby introduced him and could feel the gentleness that his persona emanated. Even his handshake, in which Yatsuhashi had only needed three fingers to completely envelope Weiss' slender hand, had been gentle.

Yatsuhashi was also in charge of the weekly recommended workout schedule handed out at the end of practice. It wasn't mandatory that you follow the schedule, or even do any of it, but it was strongly recommended if you wanted to get better and not die every Thursday.

When Weiss asked what laps were, Ruby gently whacked her hand against her own head. "Aww, sorry Weiss, I should've explained that. I forget climbing has its own language. It took me months to get it all straight. Laps are how we work on endurance. Instead of climbing up and getting lowered down, you're belayer gives you some slack in the rope and you climb down. It's called downclimbing. It's super weird at first, but it works different muscles and it doesn't give you a chance to rest. Once you hit the ground, you go straight back up! At practice we usually do sets of three. Climbing up and back down equals one, and when you've done three, you switch off with your partner so they can climb, too. The goal today is to get as many reps in as you can before the twenty minutes is up. Twenty minutes isn't really a long time, but it works out well with everything else we're doing today. Sometimes we'll spend an entire hour on laps, and we have them at least once a week on the training schedule. Do you have any other questions?"

"Not right now. I'll probably need help remembering everyone's name though," Weiss replied.

"No worries, I can help you there! Does this mean you'll be coming back?!" Ruby's grey eyes sparkled with excitement as she turned to Weiss.

"I'll consider it." Weiss responded, as cool as ever.

The brunette knew Weiss well enough by now to know that in Weiss world, this was the equivalent of an enthusiastic yes.

With a huge grin, Ruby replied, "Great! Well, you can get to know everyone better next time! I know you'll love it! For now though, we should go study."

Weiss just shook her head in response to Ruby's infinite excitement as she followed the younger girl to go get her stuff and then out the door.

On the way to the coffee shop, Ruby explained setting to Weiss in more detail, just as she had promised. In the short 10 minute walk across campus, Ruby explained how the setters replaced routes in both the bouldering cave and top rope wall. According to Ruby, each gym had a different system, but here at Beacon you could expect all the routes to be replaced every 3-4 months. They didn't do this all at once, unless Beacon was hosting a climbing competition. Instead, each week, on average, four top rope routes and three boulder problems would be assigned to come down, and the exact same number of new routes would go up. It usually took a little less than four hours to take down and put up a new TR route, and two hours or less to take down and put up a new boulder problem.

There was a complicated system that kept a certain number of route of each difficulty on the wall at all times, but that was the head setter and rock manager's job to handle. All the setting team had to do was make their routes fun and keep them at the assigned difficulty. The wall was fitted with a ton of holes with t-nuts screwed into the backside of the wall, so all the setters had to do, in Ruby's words, was 'grab a drill, a few holds from the hold closet, and some bolts and then up we go'.

After asking a few probing question, Weiss realized it was a lot more difficult than Ruby made it sound. Setting a TR route required, at minimum, lugging a thirty pound bucket of holds up the wall using various knots and equipment that Ruby said she'd show her next time they were at the wall. The most difficult thing though, at least to Weiss, was the creativity setting seemed to require. Other than a difficulty grade, the setters were pretty much allowed to do whatever they wanted, using the hundreds of holes and hundreds of holds however they wanted.

Ruby said it came from experience. You got to know what a 5.11 felt like compared to a 5.10, and seeing movements instead of holes in the wall became like second nature. Weiss had a feeling that once again Ruby was making things sound much easier than they actually were, but she let it go and figured she'd take Ruby up on the offer to show her how it was all done sometime after hours.

By the time they got to the coffee shop, Weiss' head was swimming with climbing terms and technicalities, but between Ruby's excited explanations and the idea of getting inducted into the new and exciting climbing world, she had smiled more in one night than she probably had all week.

Weiss ordered a hot tea and Ruby just ordered a local caffeine-free organic root beer, commenting that after last time, her sister and Blake would kill her if she came home hyped up on caffeine this late. Seeing how energetic the girl was on nothing but life, she had no doubt the girl's friends were serious.

The pair spent the next couple hours with their strategic management books in front of them, but they hardly touched on the business topic. Instead, Ruby asked Weiss questions no one had ever bothered to take the time to ask her. It was never anything overly personal, just simple things that she was eager to share, like her favorite race, what she liked about tennis, how far she used to run, her least favorite professor, and even things as simple as what she did today. Just as the brunette was an endless fountain of energy, she also seemed to hold endless questions and genuine smiles.

For the first time in a long time, Weiss was comfortable. The genuine curiosity the girl showed at each question reassured Weiss that this was unlike the half thought out questions of those who simply wanted to use or manipulate her. Ruby, unlike so many, wanted nothing from Weiss. She just genuinely cared.

The girls packed up about thirty minutes before the coffee shop closed at midnight. Both girls had left their cars in the Rec Center parking lot knowing they'd be out late, so they made the quick walk across the well-lit campus together. Right before they reached the lot, Ruby got a text.

After quickly glancing over the message, she looked over at Weiss, "Do you like basketball?"

"I've never played. I doubt I'm very good."

"Not playing basketball," the brunette laughed, "I meant watching basketball."

"Ohh. Well, I've never been."

"Well it's settled then! Yang managed to get an extra ticket for the game this weekend. It's yours. If you're not busy Saturday night..?" Ruby phrased the last part as more of a question than a statement, giving Weiss a chance to back out if she wanted to.

"I can free up my Saturday night."

"Great! Want to meet at my apartment on Saturday, then? We can drive over together. It'll be me and Blake cause Yang has to get there early."

"Sure."

"Great! I'll text you the details!"

By now the girls had reached their cars. They waved a casual goodbye and then headed to their respective homes, both smiling at the enjoyable night they had just had and Ruby happy for the excuse to text the girl tomorrow.

**And there's chapter 5! This one was super climbing heavy, but I'm hoping that after maybe one more climbing centric chapter, I'll be able to move climbing to the background and really develop Weiss' and Ruby's characters. Next up, though, we'll take a break from climbing and experience Weiss' first basketball game! Until next time**

**-Lynn**


	6. Chapter 6a

From the vantage point on her bed, Blake had a clear view of the front door of the apartment she, Ruby, and Yang shared. For the fifth time in the last ten minutes, Ruby had distracted her from the book she was reading by running up to the door, checking the peephole, and then scurrying back off to her room.

Blake had finally had enough. "Ruby. What are you doing?"

Ruby poked her head into the hallway that lead to Blake's room. "Checking for Weiss. She always shows up early, and I don't want to make her wait!" As always, the girls spoke quickly and with a level of excitement Blake couldn't even begin to comprehend.

Blake took a quick look at the clock on her wall, "Ruby, it's only 4:10. Didn't you tell her we'd leave at five o'clock? Not even she's going to show up this early. Please calm down so I can read in peace."

"Aww, I'm not even making any noise. It's not my fault you find movement so distracting. At least I'm not flashing a laser across the pages of your book." Ruby replied with a rather mischievous grin.

"We agreed to _never_ speak of that again." Blake glared at Ruby, but after only a few seconds of their stare-off, Blake's face softened into a smile. Both girls began giggling uncontrollably at the memory of Yang tricking Blake into chasing a laser around her room for a good five minutes before realizing Yang was manipulating the red light from the bushes outside her room.

"Dust, I almost killed for that!" Blake finally said when she could breathe again.

"I know! Even I was scared when I saw your face. I think we're lucky you were so angry you couldn't figure out how to get outside fast enough to catch her." Ruby replied while walking down the hallway and making her way towards Blake's bed. "Blake, you'll be nice to her tonight, right?" As she spoke, she plopped herself onto the bed next to Blake, looking up at the raven-haired girl with pleading eyes.

"As long as she's nice first," Blake replied with a slight glare. "Besides, I have been nice."

"I knowwwww, I just also know how much you hate what her family's company stands for. Just remember it's not her fault."

"Fine Rubes, but you owe me."

Even though she knew Blake didn't mean it, she responded, "Fine, I promise to lay here still and quiet until I hear the doorbell if you promise not to bring up environmental justice tonight."

"Deal," Blake said with a soft laugh as she gave Ruby a gentle shove. "But that means no humming or bouncing around."

"Ugh, fine."

Thirty minutes later, Blake was pulled away from the world of her book by a knock on the door. She looked up in surprise at the lack of movement coming from the girl laying on the bed next to her.

No wonder it had been so quiet. While Blake had been engrossed in her story, the younger girl had fallen asleep, a small trickle of drool now making its way down her face.

"Ruby, door," Blake said just loud enough to wake the girl without yelling.

"Wha−?"

"Weiss is here. Wipe your face."

"Weiss…" a bleary-eyed Ruby repeated in confusion as she sat up. "Oh! Weiss! Coming!" Ruby yelled the last word as she rolled off the bed in her attempt to stand up. She hit the floor with a thump and then scrambled back up, stumbling as she tried to make her way quickly down the hallway and to the door.

The brunette quickly wiped her face with her shirt sleeve and then opened the door. "Hey Weiss!" Ruby said with a grin as she motioned for Weiss to come inside.

"Hello. Your hair is a mess, Ruby. What have you been doing?" Weiss said with an exasperated tone.

"Uhh..I fell asleep.."

Weiss sighed inwardly at the sight of the younger girl nervously looking down at her feet and running her hand through her hair. Weiss hadn't known Ruby very long, but she already knew this was Ruby's go to reaction to being embarrassed. She hadn't meant to come off so coldly, but she had just gotten off the phone from a rather trying conversation with her father. Weiss had meant it to be a gentle tease, but the frustration directed at her father had reflected in her voice.

"Hello, Weiss," Blake broke in before Weiss could recover.

"Blake," the blue-eyed girl said with a curt nod before turning her attention back to Ruby, "Come on. I'll help you fix your hair before we leave for the game. If we hurry, maybe I can try the cookie dough you're always talking about." This time, Weiss spoke with a soft smile, trying to make up for the harsh tone she had used before.

"Okay!" Ruby brightened up immediately. "Blake, be ready to leave in fifteen minutes?"

"Yeah Rubes, I'll meet you in the kitchen."

A little over ten minutes later, Ruby's hair was sitting mostly flat on her head, Weiss was savoring the last morsel of the chocolate chip cookie dough she had gotten from Ruby, and Blake was finishing up the last couple sentences of the best chapter of her book yet. The trio was all ready to go when Ruby noticed Weiss' white skinny jeans were paired with a light blue shirt.

"Wait!" Ruby yelled as they were about to walk out the door. "We're playing West Vale University today! Weiss, you can't wear blue! Everyone will think you're cheering for WVU!"

"Ruby, it'll be fine," Blake interrupted, "if she goes home to change we'll miss tip-off. You've never missed one of Yang's tip-offs."

"It's okay! She can wear one of my shirts, it'll take like thirty seconds!"

"I'm sorry, but what's wrong with my shirt?" Weiss broke in curtly.

"It's WVU's school color! They're white and light blue. You're practically a West Virginia cheerleader in that outfit, Weiss." Ruby's eyes grew wide with horror as she continued, "It's an act of utter betrayal to cheer for the opposing team."

Ruby spoke with such seriousness that Weiss almost laughed and even Blake looked like she was on the verge of rolling her eyes. But Weiss could see that there was no point in arguing with the brunette, so she simply responded, "Fine, go get me a shirt so I can change."

Twenty minutes later, the girls had made it to the will-call window at Beacon University's basketball arena. Blake and Weiss hung back as Ruby quickly made her way to wait in the short line to pick-up their tickets.

"She really takes this sports stuff seriously, doesn't she?" Weiss said as she looked down at the slightly wrinkled red and gold BU shirt she was currently wearing.

"Yeah," Blake said with a smile, "she's the worst with basketball though. She's never missed one of Yang's home games. It's kind of a tradition to them. They've played on the same team since Yang was eleven years old. I think Ruby was eight. Until they came to college, they'd shared every game together. Ruby still tries to make most of Yang's games, but now that some away game are halfway across the country in the middle of the week, it's impossible with school. I have never met two people more supportive of each other." Blake paused and turned to look at Weiss before continuing, "Both of them are like that with just about everyone every person they meet, but Ruby, especially, only knows how to see the best in people. You're lucky to have met her. I may not be Ruby's older sister, but she and Yang are the closest thing I have to family. I've heard stories about your father, but I'm willing to believe you're different. Don't take advantage of that." Blake finished speaking in a borderline threatening tone.

Weiss stared back at Blake, ice blue eyes meeting amber. "Ruby is the first person I have met in a very long time who doesn't want anything from me or care what my last name is. To her, I'm not Weiss Schnee, I'm just Weiss. I'm not going to ruin that Blake, despite what you think."

By now, Ruby had made it to the front of the line, and the attendant at the window was handing her their tickets. "I just had to be sure," Blake said with a nod, "now let's go enjoy your first basketball game. We have the best seats in the house."

The two girls finished their conversation just as Ruby was making her way to them, tickets in hand. "Let's go guys! We have just enough time to grab a hot dog and some popcorn before the game!"

"But you just ate half a package of cookie dough before we left your apartment!" Weiss cried out in disbelief as Ruby all but dragged the two girls into the arena.

* * *

**First off, thanks so much for everyone who has reviewed or followed this story so far! Special shout out to Touzen for reviewing every chapter of this, you're a big part of why I've continued this story.**

**Second thing, sorry for this chapter being so delayed. Life just gets in the way but I promise I'm working on this when I can! I know this chapter is a little shorter than normal and it was supposed to be longer, but I'm really struggling with what was to be the second half of the chapter. It's just not quite what I want it to be yet and they can stand alone as two separate chapters so I figured I'd post what I have instead of making y'all wait. **

**Honestly, the longest fiction piece I've written was a 500 word creative writing assignment a few years ago in high school. My writing background is business reports and philosophy papers, so I'm learning to develop a sustainable plot and characters as I go. I have an end game in mind, but figuring out the in-between stuff is taking some time. That being said, I really appreciate you guys being patient and sticking this out with me!**

**-Lynn**


	7. Chapter 6b

Blake hadn't been exaggerating when she had said they had the best seats in the entire arena. Weiss was surprised to find herself one seat away from the home team's bench with Blake and Ruby on either side, the trio's feet literally on the court about five feet away from the sideline.

Blake had told her the seats were part of the deal Yang had made with BU when she signed to spend her college years playing for the school: 2 comp seats right next to the bench to every home game. Ruby had spent every game Yang had ever played right next to her sister, and Yang wasn't about to let that change anytime soon. So, the older girl had made Beacon move the game clock over a few feet and add two seats to the team's bench for Ruby and their father, or whomever Ruby decided to invite when their dad couldn't make it. Once the school year had started and the sisters had found out that they were put in a three person dorm with Blake, Yang had the team extend it to three seats so that Blake always had a place with them, too.

Weiss assumed that Yang must be a pretty good player to be able make demands like that, and once the game started and she saw Ruby's older sister in action, her assumption was quickly confirmed.

"Since you're sitting next to Ruby, you're in charge of the popcorn," Blake also told Weiss just before tip-off.

When Weiss looked at her in confusion, Blake explained, "When Ruby gets excited, she tends to jump up and forget about anything that she may be holding. After she spilled three bags of popcorn, two drinks, and hit the other team's coach with a hotdog Yang's first season, we were put on a three strike rule. They were pretty mad about the whole hotdog incident… Anyways, now, after the third spill of anything, we lose our seats and have to move back into the normal rows for the rest of the season."

Blake continued, "We're already at two strikes for this season, so any time it looks like she's going to stand up, grab whatever she's holding. And if we're losing or it's a close game in the last quarter, just don't let her hold anything at all."

"Ruby threw a hotdog at a coach?" Weiss asked in disbelief.

"She swears it was an accident," Blake responded. "Yang scored with an and 1 and Ruby stood up to cheer and the hotdog just went flying…"

"That dolt." Weiss sighed. "I'll be sure to watch her."

"It's about to start!" Ruby yelled excitedly, completely oblivious to Weiss and Blake. "Let's go Yang!"

"Grab the popcorn. Now."

Weiss snatched the popcorn from Ruby's grasp just as two players, a tall brunette in light blue and a still tall but shorter blonde, walked up to circle in the very center of the court.

Ruby jumped up and threw her hands in the air as the ref put his whistle to his lips. "Go Beacon!"

Weiss saw why Blake had been so insistent on her grabbing the popcorn as the ref blew his whistle and the game began.

The ref threw the ball into the air between the two girls and both jumped as high as they could, stretching for the ball. The shorter blonde made up for her height with a huge vertical jump and reached the ball first, tipping the ball behind her to one of her teammates. As the players settled into the game, Weiss looked around to try and discern which of Beacon's players was Ruby's sister.

She had picked out two promising ones, a short (at least for a basketball player) brunette with short hair and another taller girl with long light brown hair and lighter colored eyes.

When she finally asked Blake which one of the two was Ruby's sister, Blake laughed and instead pointed at the flashy blonde who always seemed to have the ball, "That's Yang."

Weiss did a double take as she took in the blonde's size and aggressiveness on the court. There was no way the small girl sitting next to her could be related to the blonde brute on the court who had already shoved two people to the ground attempting what Ruby had called a layup.

"Is Ruby adopted?" Weiss blurted out in disbelief. "I mean, uhh… they don't look much alike?" Weiss miserable continued in an attempt to save herself from the unthoughtful statement.

Blake just continued laughing at Weiss' apparent discomfort. "No, but they are only half-sisters," the raven-haired girl finally said, putting Weiss out of her misery. "I'm sure Ruby will explain if you ask her after the game."

As the game progressed, Weiss did her best to keep up with what was going on. All she really knew about basketball was that it was ten tall people trying to score baskets. She occasionally asked Blake to explain some of the more technical aspects of the game, like why the whistle was blown at what seemed like random times to Weiss, as well as why sometimes both teams would pause and line up around the basket to let someone take two shots. Blake had called that free throws.

But the blue eyed girl had mostly found herself getting engrossed in the flow of the game as the two teams ran back and forth with incredible athleticism.

By half time, Beacon was winning by only four points, and the second half promised to be even more exciting than the first. As the waited for half time to end, Ruby was finally paying attention to something other than the basketball game and was doing her best to get Weiss to try the popcorn sitting in her lap.

"But Weiss, it's so good! All buttery and crunchy and delicious!"

"Ruby, this popcorn has been sitting out for the last hour, and who knows how long they had it sitting there before you bought it."

"But Weiss, that's the beauty of popcorn – it's always good!"

"Do you have any idea how bad that stuff probably is for you?"

"Nope! But I haven't died yet! Please Weiss?" Ruby pleaded, unleashing her secret weapon.

Weiss' resolve shattered as she saw Ruby's begging silver eyes.

"I'll take two," was all Weiss said as she held out her hand.

Ruby immediately brightened as she handed Weiss two of the fluffiest, buttery-est pieces of popcorn she could find. "You're gonna love it!"

Weiss delicately placed the two pieces of popcorn on her tongue in response. As the buttery flavor spread across her taste buds, Weiss' eyes widened. She had never tasted anything like it, the buttery unhealthiness tasted absolutely amazing. Much better than the kale salad she had eaten for lunch. "It's not bad," was all Weiss said as she reached her hand into the bag to grab a few more pieces.

"I knew you'd love it! I'll go grab another bag." Before Blake or Weiss could say anything, the girl was gone.

Weiss just turned to Blake and asked, "How does she eat so much?"

"Wait to you see her when there are cookies or strawberries involved. The girl is a black hole."

Ruby made it back just in time for the second half with a fresh, warm bag of popcorn for her and Weiss to share. As the game started, Weiss absentmindedly grabbed a handful of the warm salty food. Who knew popcorn could be so addicting?

By the time there was only three minutes left in the game, the second bag of popcorn was gone, and Beacon was down by six points. According Blake, Yang had four out of the five allotted fouls per game and she was leading the team with 22 points and a lot of assists, whatever those were. Yang was Beacon's main ball handler, Blake had used the phrase point guard, and she needed to make it the rest of the game without fouling if she didn't want to be stuck sitting the bench helplessly for the rest of the game.

Beacon's team scored to close the lead by two, but WVU returned the score on their next possession, returning their lead to six. Beacon managed to score again as Yang returned the ball down the court and passed it off to one of Beacon's centers under the basket, who went up for an uncontested two.

After the score, Beacon's team moved into a full court defensive press instead of waiting on the other end of the court for West Vale to return the ball. Yang stood patiently just off to the side of the WVU player waiting for the ball. As soon as the ball was passed, Yang pounced. In a flash of yellow and red, Yang grabbed the ball from the WVU player as she began to dribble and went straight to the basket for a clean layup, earning BU two points.

With the two scores in a row, Beacon had cut the lead down to a mere two points, and the entire stadium, including Weiss, was standing up cheering.

The three girls were less than five feet away from the sideline and center court, and it felt like they were in the action themselves. Weiss could feel the energy and the adrenaline from players around her, and her own excitement fed off of it.

Weiss wasn't a basketball fan, but at this point she was cheering as almost as loudly as Ruby, if less often. The electricity from both the players and fans around them had even the stoic Blake yelling at the top of her lungs. It was a good thing the popcorn bag was now laying empty at their feet, because not one of the trio was in a state to pay attention to what was in their hands.

With a minute and a half left, WVU had the ball and was beating Beacon by two points. West Vale's point guard brought the ball down the court, dodging the now expected attack from Yang. After a series of quick passes, the ball ended up in the hands of one of the taller girls underneath the basket. The girl in the light blue uniform went up to take a shot just as one of Beacon's players jumped forward with her hands up and managed to block the shot.

Another BU player recovered the ball, and with 40 seconds to go in the game, the players quickly made their way to the other side of the court. Weiss' head was buzzing with so much adrenaline that everything seemed to be fuzzy, and after the quick succession of plays, she was now yelling just as enthusiastically as Ruby.

The entire stadium seemed to be holding their breath, waiting to see if Beacon's offensive could break through West Vale's determined defense. Everyone knew the game was riding on this possession, and both teams were fighting hard.

With five seconds left on the shot clock, Yang was getting desperate. The only thing worse than losing was losing without even attempting a shot. So Yang did what Yang does best. She charged to the basket with all the grace and ferocity of a charging bear, eyes flashing as she dared someone to get in her way.

West Vale's team closed in on the basket, ready to stop her at all costs.

Just as Yang picked up the ball for her signature layup, a brave WVU girl planted her feet and stood in her path, ready to take the charge.

Yang knew if she rammed into the girl who had her feet planted, it would count as a foul against BU. Even if she managed to make the shot, if Yang fouled the other girl, the shot wouldn't count.

Luckily, she had expected this, and instead of continuing her momentum forward, Yang twisted sideways and passed the ball out to her waiting, and now open, teammate on the outside of the 3-point line. As the ball left Yang's hands, she threw herself to the ground, barely avoiding West Vale's player.

Yang had drawn all of WVU's players into the paint under the basket, leaving her team's best 3-point shooter wide open. The girl set herself up and took the shot. Time slowed as the ball arced through the air, floating towards the basket.

With a barely audible 'swoosh', the ball neatly fell through the net, and Beacon gained three points. The arena erupted with cheers. Now Beacon was up by one, and all they had to do was hold off West Vale's offense for 11 seconds.

It was the longest 11 seconds of Weiss' life. But no matter what efforts WVU made, Beacon managed to keep them away from scoring position without fouling. With under a second left, West Vale's point guard made one last desperate chuck of the ball towards the basket from well behind the 3-point line.

The game ended with a loud buzz and a soft bounce as the ball harmless hit the floor several feet to the left of the basket. Weiss let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding.

"We won Weiss, we won!" Ruby was yelling as she jumped up and down with excitement, "WVU was ranked #2 in the country and we w—" As Ruby stepped towards Weiss, she slipped on the forgotten popcorn bag and fell over.

Weiss' body reacted before her brain did, and she let out a clear, melodious laugh.

For the first time in as long as Weiss could remember, she didn't have some part of her mind telling her to hold control herself, to not show just how much she was enjoying herself because it was unprofessional. Weiss laughed the kind of laugh that makes it hard to breath and makes your stomach sore the next day without holding back.

Blake laughed too and eventually both girl's reached down to help the younger girl—who was still excitedly yelling, "We won!"—up from the floor. As Ruby sprang up, she gave one last yell for good measure and wrapped both Blake and Weiss in a hug.

Weiss' brain, still fuzzy from the adrenaline of the game, once again didn't have time to think before her body reacted. She returned the hug of both Ruby and Blake without even hesitating even though caring human touch was almost as foreign to her as laughter.

"Now let's go find Yang!" Ruby yelled as she released the two and turned towards the court.

**And that's the second piece of Chapter 6! I've labeled them 6a and 6b now since technically they were all meant to part of the same chapter. Some parts are still a bit rough, but I'm definitely glad I took the extra time to work on it a bit longer instead of forcing it up with the previous chapter. Next up, we finally get to meet Yang! I actually planned this next chapter to be part of chapter 6 as well, which is why it ends kinda suddenly, but 6b ended up being longer than I thought so it'll probably end up as its own chapter….not that it really matters..**

**Anyways, thanks to everyone for the follows, reviews, and encouragement! **

**-Lynn**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: So, I'm probably the slowest writer ever, but I had the idea for this visualized in my head and I wasn't going to stop until my writing and my brain picture matched. It was [hopefully] worth the wait.**

**-Lynn**

Ruby sat in the passenger seat of Blake's car, thinking about the game. Once the final buzzer rang, Ruby had led her friends onto the court to go celebrate with the team and find Yang.

By now, Blake and Ruby were a common sight after games, and they were treated as part of the team, given sweaty hugs and high fives. Even Weiss found herself getting swept away by the team.

Eventually, they had found Yang, and Ruby and Blake were embraced in a huge hug by the grinning blonde. Ruby was ecstatic for her sister and yelled several congratulations. As the trio was reunited, Weiss had stood off to the side, unsure of her place. However, after the initial excitement of seeing the other two girls, Yang reached out and grabbed Weiss, pulling her into their group hug.

"You must be the Weiss Blake and Ruby have been talking about! You're just as pretty as she said! Nice to meet ya!" Yang had said as bluntly as ever.

Ruby had almost died of embarrassment, but Weiss' only response was a loud squeak as she was pulled into the smelly blonde's strong arms. The brunette hoped that with all the excitement going on, Weiss hadn't noticed exactly what her sister had said. Ruby didn't dwell on it too long, though, and after several more congratulations and hugs, all of the girls had been invited to a party at one of the player's houses. Weiss had agreed to go on the condition that they could stop by her apartment so that she could change into a shirt that wasn't wrinkled.

When Ruby countered that the shirt had to be red and yellow, Weiss sighed in defeat. Having never been a sports fan or been particularly involved in the school, she had no Beacon-themed shirts. On hearing this, Ruby was once again mortified, but she quickly got over her disbelief and the trio finally compromised on going back to Blake's and Ruby's to throw the shirt in the dryer (Ruby didn't own an iron). They had plenty of time since Yang and the rest of the team still had to debrief the game with their coach and take a quick shower.

After a quick snack and attempting, with Blake, to explain the difference between FPS, RPG, and MMORPG games to Weiss, the trio finally made it back into Blake's car and were on their way to meet Yang at her teammate's house.

What she really couldn't get out of her head, however, was the laugh. Ruby had heard Weiss laugh before, but now she realized just how muted those laughs and light chuckles were. They were controlled and calculated, much like Weiss herself, if you didn't know her. Weiss' real laugh, though, was quite possibly the most beautiful thing the brunette had ever heard. And she was determined to hear it again.

"Ruby, I never asked, how did you manage to knock yourself out with a stop sign?" Weiss' clear voice broke into Ruby's thoughts.

"Aww, Blake! You told her?!"

"I might've mentioned it," Blake said with a smirk, keeping her eyes on the road.

Ruby sighed as she resigned herself to spending the rest of the short drive defending how it easy it is to run into a sign, especially if you weren't looking.

By the time they made it to their destination just outside of the town proper, the entire trio was laughing as Ruby gesturing with her hands in an attempt to convey how exactly one runs into a metal sign with enough force to be knocked out for several seconds. According to Ruby's calculations, the involvement of a Frisbee ups your chances by about 60%.

"So you ran into the sign because you were too focused on beating Zwei to the Frisbee Yang overthrew. And Zwei still won?" Weiss summed up breathlessly as they got out of the car.

"Yeah, but I'm totally faster than Zwei! He only won cause he's so much shorter than me!" Ruby pouted.

"She actually would have won if she hadn't blacked out for 15 seconds. She was ahead," Blake added in a serious tone before she burst into laughter, quickly followed by Weiss.

"Fine. Laugh all you want, but we all know I'm faster!" Ruby yelled as she walked towards the house's open door and walked in.

Blake and Weiss followed her in and were immediately greeted by a towering blonde.

"Blake-y," Yang yelled, "I've missed you!" as she dragged the raven-haired girl into another hug.

"Yang, you just saw me," the tall girl said, seemingly unphased.

"For, like, two minutes! Geez, how come you're never as excited to see me as I am to see you?"

"It probably has something to do with the fact that you almost break my back just about every time you see me."

"Whatever, you know everyone loves my hugs, even ice-y Weiss-y over here," Yang said as she picked up the now annoyed looking heiress into a bone crunching hug, once again causing her to squeak.

Weiss froze as the strange lively blonde embraced her. Ice-y Weiss-y? No. Not okay. "Put me down this instant, you brute!"

"Ohh, you are a f-ice-ty one!" Yang said with a wink as she put the small girl down.

Blake and Ruby groaned.

"Yangggg, we talked about personal space! And puns!" Ruby groaned again as she saw the flustered, red-faced Weiss. Even Blake looked worried for the blue-eyed girl.

"Ahh..yeahh, don't worry Rubes, Weiss and I are gonna get along great! She's just gotta warm up to me first! C'mon Weiss, let's get you a drink!" the lively girl said as she wrapped her arm around the still flustered heiress and walked her to the kitchen at the end of the hallway.

"Here, I'll make everyone their first drink to make up for making ya squeak!" Yang told Weiss.

"I did not squeak!" Weiss said indignantly to Yang's back.

"You totally squeaked," Blake said as she walked up behind the blue eyed girl.

Weiss just turned and glared at her.

"I wish I could say they weren't always like this," Ruby sighed as she approached Blake's side. "Yang is just really enthusiastic."

Weiss took a deep breath before replying, "Well, I see where you get it from. I got used to it with you, I guess I can learn to deal with your sister, too."

Ruby's face instantly lit up, and Weiss knew it was one of the rare times she had said the right thing. Yang really didn't seem all that bad, she had just been taken off guard. Not many people dared pick up and attempt to crush Weiss Schnee. Secretly, Weiss thought it was kind of nice to be treated like any other person the blonde came into contact with, even if Yang was a bit of a reckless brute.

"Here you go guys. The Yang Special!" Yang disrupted Weiss' thoughts as she handed everyone a cup of bubbly liquid.

"What's in it?"

"It's a secret."

"It's actually really good," Ruby reassured Weiss, "it really is her specialty."

The blue eyed girl took a sip, and was surprised to find it was a pleasant mix of bubbly and sweet, almost like Sprite, and she could hardly taste any alcohol. "It's actually not bad."

"Told ya!" Ruby exclaimed. "C'mon, I'll introduce you to the team!" The girl immediately headed out the kitchen door towards the living room, not waiting for Weiss.

Weiss moved to follow when a hand grabbed her shoulder, holding her back.

"Hold on there princess, we need to talk first." The smile had left Yang's face for the first time that night. "Any friend of Ruby's is a friend of mine, and she seems to think very highly of you, but let's be clear. You hurt her, in any way, and you have to deal with me. And make no mistake, princess, if that happens, I will enjoy busting your pretty face in."

Weiss jerked her shoulder out of Yang's grasp. "I have no intention of harming your sister. So back off. Ruby's already given me a second chance, and I'm not going to waste that. So both of you," Weiss looked pointedly at both Blake and Yang before continuing in a steely voice, "can stop with the speeches."

Yang's smile suddenly came back, "Good to hear! Now that we've got the formalities out of the way, welcome to the family!" Yang took a step towards Weiss.

"Yang, I swear, if you hug me again tonight, I will 'spill' my drink all over you."

"Okay, still upset about earlier, fine, I get it. How 'bout we go check out the rest of the party?"

"Good plan." Blake said, knowing it would do both girls good to get some space from each other. "Let's go find Ruby."

Thirty minutes later, Weiss was surprised to see just how easily Ruby seemed to fit in at the party. The brunette wasn't the center of attention like her sister was, but Ruby looked completely comfortable mingling with a few people while Weiss had gone to get Yang to make her another deliciously sweet drink.

By the time she was on her way back to her friend, the younger girl had a bottle of beer in one hand and she had the people she was standing with laughing, most likely from a crazy story about Yang. Weiss paused for a moment and smiled to herself as she watched the small girl motion wildly with her hands.

Suddenly, a mane of blonde popped up next to her, "Like what you see?" she said with a smirk.

Weiss jumped, "Dammit Yang! You can't go scaring people like that!"

"Don't worry, I won't tell my sis you think she's cute," Yang continued.

"Wha – I never said I think Ruby is cute," Weiss stuttered.

"Don't worry Weiss, your secret is safe with me," Yang said with a wink before disappearing as quickly as she had appeared, leaving behind a spluttering, red-faced heiress.

"I hate her." Weiss mumbled to herself as she made her way back towards Ruby, taking a few gulps from her drink.

When Weiss finally found her way back to the brunette, Ruby introduced Weiss to the people she had been talking to, two girls from the soccer team and a guy from the lacrosse team.

When Weiss' drink was halfway gone, she stepped closer to Ruby, "Why is it so crowded in here?"

"Ohh, looks like the rest of the football team showed up! And the baseball team, too. They always like to show up late. It is getting to be a lot of people in a small space, though." Ruby's face clouded in thought for a second, "Want to go outside for a bit? I have something cool to show you if you don't mind a short walk."

"Sure," the idea of some fresh air and some alone time with Ruby sounded surprisingly good to the heiress.

"Great! This way." The younger girl led the way between groups of people in the now stuffed living room. After only a few steps, though, Weiss got caught in a wave of baseball players heading for the kitchen.

Ruby quickly doubled back to rescue the slender girl.

"Why are there so many people?"

Ruby laughed, "It was a big game tonight, we won the conference title! All the university's teams are here to celebrate! C'mon, Weiss, let's get out of here before it gets worse." Ruby grabbed Weiss' hand. "Stay close!"

Weiss had to walk practically on top of Ruby in order to not get separated from her. There were people everywhere by now, and it was a relief to finally make it through the back door and into the backyard. It was still full of people, but the yard was much less crowded than the house. Weiss was now able to walk an arm's length away from Ruby, the younger girl's hand in one hand and Yang's Special in the other.

Ruby skillfully led their way towards an inconspicuous gate at the very back corner of the surprisingly large backyard. "I come out here a lot, Yang tends to win a lot of games, and the parties get stuffy really quickly," Ruby explained as she lifted the latch with two fingers and held it open for Weiss to go through.

Weiss continued through the gate, pulling Ruby forward. The brunette looked down, trying to find out what had tugged her hand. She had completely forgotten to let go of Weiss, only now remembering they were still connected. Ruby automatically walked through the gate, trying frantically to get her mind working again.

Weiss' hand was cool and soft, her slender fingers grasping Ruby's hand in a surprisingly firm embrace. It felt perfect. Ruby never wanted to let go, and she cursed herself for it.

She knew Weiss was uncomfortable with having her personal space compromised. It was evident in the ways she quickly stepped back when Nora got too excited for her at the Wall and tried to hug her after a good climb, how she reacted to Yang picking her up.

Ruby hated when Weiss flinched from her contact, and she had especially hated when Weiss yelled at her. So, Ruby had been very cautious when making contact with the blue-eyed girl. Weiss hadn't yelled at her since their explosive first meeting, and other than the earlier Yang incident, she'd gotten more comfortable around not just Ruby, but their entire group of friends. Now, Ruby was scared of just how close she was to crossing the line. Not just Weiss' line, but the line Ruby had drawn for herself, the line between friendship and the hope of something more. Short hugs and a level of comfort around each other were normal friend things, but walks under the stars holding hands was definitely pushing it. Ruby needed to find a way to let go of Weiss' hand before she started yelling again, before Ruby made her uncomfortable.

After a short pause, Ruby turned around, gently pulling her hand away from Weiss', "Just gotta shut the gate."

Weiss turned to look at her surroundings, squinting in the moonlight that was just bright enough to illuminate a narrow, slightly overgrown trail leading out into a slightly wooded area. The night was clear, and just cool enough for her to shiver slightly as she adjusted to the temperature. She was only halfway through her second drink, but her head was already starting to get surprisingly fuzzy.

It took her a couple of moments to realize her left hand was suddenly empty, missing the soft warmth that had embraced it before. Ruby's hand had been surprisingly soft. She had been able to feel the slightly raised callouses, but they were smooth and her grasp had been gentle and caring, much like her personality. It had been comfortable, just like Ruby's presence, and Weiss was surprised to find she wished it had lasted just a little longer.

Weiss shook her head softly in an attempt to clear her thoughts. Yang must've made her a really strong drink.

She heard Ruby's foot crunch in the grass behind her, "C'mon Weiss, this way." The girl led her along the trail, into the woods.

"You're not taking me out here to kill me, are you?" Weiss chuckled, pretty sure she was only half serious. It was really dark, and the woods had a creepy shadow to them in the moonlight.

"Of course not! You know me better than that." Ruby said indignantly, with just a hint of that adorable pout in her voice.

"I'm just messing with you Ruby, it's actually really nice out here, even if the woods are a little creepy."

"Just be glad it's a full moon out, or the woods would be a lot creepy," laughed Ruby. "Don't worry though, we won't' get lost. I come out here all the time, those parties tend to get pretty boring."

"Then why do you go?"

"To celebrate with Yang, and to make sure she gets home safe. Blake usually does a pretty good job, but I like to be sure."

"Considering she's supposed to be your older sister, you take really good care of her." Ruby could see the hidden question in Weiss' eyes, hear it in her voice. Usually it was the older sister who took care of the younger, after all.

After a slight pause, Ruby responded thoughtfully, "I'm just returning the favor. She took care of me a lot when we were younger, and now I'm old enough that we can both look after each other. Plus, not sure if you noticed, but Yang has a tendency to be kinda reckless."

"I see." Weiss could tell by Ruby's voice that there was something more to that story, but she didn't feel it was her place to pry just yet. The two continued their walk, lost in their own thoughts until Ruby broke the silence.

"It's just around this corner. Watch your step, it's a little rocky."

Their path led them out from under the trees into a bare, rocky area. Weiss took a few steps forward and saw that the rocky terrain extended as far as she could see in the moonlight to the right and left, but about 15 feet forward, it ended with a drop-off. Just to their right was a park bench.

"Where are we?"

"You know that running path in the park along the river you mentioned was your favorite? If you go to the edge of the cliff, you'll see the river just beneath us. The moon is bright enough you can probably see the path between the trees, too. The houses in the neighborhood we were at lines the edge of the park's eastern most boundary above the cliff line."

Weiss walked closer to the cliff side and looked down. She could see the river sparkling gently in the nightlight, the full moon reflecting back at her, the familiar line of trees along the dirt path that made up the River Trail. The angle of their lookout was perfect. It was just between two bends in the cliff, so you couldn't see the lights of the city to the right or the street lamps of the highway that lay to the north. It was a view of nature as if it had been untouched by human hands right in the middle of civilization. It was beautiful.

Weiss took another step forward to get a better look, inhaling sharply as she felt a few pebbles give way underneath her foot. Just when she thought she was going to lose her footing completely, a strong arm wrapped around her waist.

"Please be careful. You're making me nervous this close to the edge." Weiss felt rather than heard Ruby breath into her ear. The blue-eyed girl took a step back, she was right up against Ruby now, could feel the slightly taller girl's solid warmth behind her.

The pressure around her waist lessened, "How 'bout we go sit down and enjoy the view from the nice, safe bench?" Ruby said with her best attempt at a smile, leaving Weiss cold and alone by the edge of the cliff.

Ruby turned and bit her lip, berating herself for her actions. It had been purely reflexive, Weiss probably wasn't close enough to the edge to tumble off the cliff, but she was about to fall, so Ruby had reacted. And she had liked the results of her actions too much.

Ruby wiped her thoughts from her mind as she reached the bench, not wanting Weiss to read the conflicting thoughts in her head on her face. Ruby sat on the far end, leaving plenty of space for the heiress.

Weiss sat next to the brunette, unable to get the lingering feeling of Ruby's arm around her waist out of her head. "It's beautiful out here," she said. What was beautiful, though? The cliff side view of the river, the freckles dotting Ruby's slightly rosy cheeks, or the way the moonlight winked out at her from those perfect, caring silver eyes? Everything was starting to blur together, and it was getting hard to keep her mind straight. Weiss took another sip from her drink, trying to get her thoughts together. "Ruby, why do you and your sister look nothing alike?" That did not come out right.

Ruby laughed, "We're actually only half sisters, we only share the same dad, but we've been sisters as long as I can remember."

"Ohh," was all Weiss managed to get out. She took another sip. "So did you two grow up together?"

"Mostly. Yang's mom left right after she was born. Dad met my mom a year later. Mom and Dad were in the FBI, and happened to posted in the same office for awhile. I was born when Yang was almost two. We were together until I was five. Then, Mom got an assignment overseas. Dad had to finish his assignment before he could leave. It was only supposed to be a temporary assignment for mom anyway, 6 months to a year. So, they figured we could all regroup after a year at most."

Ruby was talking surprisingly slow, deliberate, like she was putting something off. "Mom took me with her and Yang stayed with Dad since she had already started school. It ended up being about two and a half years. I was enrolled in school in Europe for most of that time, that's why I was moved up a few years when we got back to the States." A deep breath.

"Anyways, Yang would come up to visit during the summers and on holidays with Dad, when he could, but otherwise we lived apart during that time. We weren't permanently reunited until…" She took a shaky breath. "Until Mom died," Ruby continued, "until Mom was killed." Ruby's face hardened, and she continued after a short pause, "I moved back to the States with Dad and Yang after Mom was killed by members of the crime organization she had been sent to Europe to investigate."

Ruby bit her lip and turned away, trying to hid the liquid that was slowly building up in her eyes. She blinked a few times before turning back towards Weiss, her eyes now only slightly glazed over with tears. "Sorry, I don't talk about it out loud much, it's tough," Ruby said, attempting to smile.

The heiress sat frozen for a second, surprised at the dark past of the girl who was known for her cheeriness. Instinctively, Weiss scooted a little closer to the younger girl, reaching out and grabbing her hand.

For a few moments, she just sat there, holding Ruby's hand. Then, she pulled the brunette's hand into her lap, playing with the girl's fingers, trying to get the words out of her mouth.

Finally, Weiss gathered up the strength to talk, "When I was eight, I went out with my mom to go take care of a few errands. It was just a normal day, we were going to do some early Christmas shopping after my mom dropped off a check at the bank. We walked in, and were standing in line when three men walked in. No one noticed them at first, except me." Weiss was still looking down, playing with Ruby's hand, "I thought it was weird they were wearing these strange masks – white, with weird red markings – so I tugged at my mom's hand. Before she had time to turn and see what I wanted, though, the men started yelling, telling everyone to get on the ground, and pulling out guns. There was a second of confusion and a man panicked and tried to run. They shot him, and fired a few extra shots just to scare everyone. One bullet shattered a window, and glass went flying everywhere. Mom pulled me down." Weiss paused for a long time, reaching down and picking up her drink from where she had placed when she started the story. She played with contents for a few seconds, swirling them around, finally drinking everything that was left in the cup in her attempt to delay what came next.

Ruby was looking at her intently now, waiting patiently. Eventually, Weiss continued, "I don't remember much after that, lots of yelling, at some point sirens. I think they panicked. They knew they were about to get caught. So, they grabbed my mom, picked her up off the floor and pushed her in front of them. I was so scared. I didn't understand what was happening. I just laid there, frozen, too scared to move."

It was Weiss' turn to look away, letting go of Ruby's hand. She took a deep breath, clenching her hands into fists in her lap, "They yelled more, waved their guns. I don't know what they said, but my Mom looked scared, they pointed the gun at her. I jumped up and ran at them. I think I tried to tackle one of them, I just remember getting shoved to the ground. I heard a bang, and felt a lot of pain in my eye. I had landed on a piece of glass, everything was red. I rolled over, and they're were cops everywhere. But I only saw Mom, she was red, too. She wasn't moving."

Weiss paused again, she was visibly shaking now. Ruby pulled the slender girl into her side.

"I was so scared Ruby, but if I had only been stronger, bigger maybe she would still be here… I was just so scared." Weiss' body was practically heaving now. The tears she had been struggling to hold in finally started to slowly leak out.

Ruby waited until Weiss stopped shaking before speaking, "It wasn't your fault, Weiss."

Eventually, Weiss managed to look at Ruby apologetically. "Sorry I'm such a mess. You're the first person I've talked to about it since right after it happened."

Weiss' eyes were free of tears, but Ruby could see that they were still filled with pain. She reached out, gently tracing the scar that ran across Weiss' eye, "You have nothing to be sorry for." For a brief moment, their eyes connected, and Weiss saw the care and honesty in the other girl's silver eyes.

For the first time, Weiss began to think that maybe Ruby was right, maybe she didn't have to be sorry anymore, maybe it wasn't her fault. The pain and regret that had surrounded her heart for the last 14 years finally began to melt away, and Weiss smiled back at the younger girl. "Maybe you're right, Ruby."

Ruby's eyes lit up, and after a short pause, she said, "You know, I've always wanted a cool scar on my face. It makes you look so much more distinguished!" Weiss just stared at Ruby with her eyebrows slightly raised, so the younger girl continued, "Seriously! It makes you look like a warrior! Just like the heroes in the books, you fought for something you believed in." Ruby's voice took on a serious tone.

Weiss smiled again. Leave it to Ruby to think Weiss was a storybook hero, and to want to be one herself. No wonder the girl was so genuine and caring all the time, she had the best heart out of anyone Weiss had ever met. But of course, Weiss had a reputation to uphold. She couldn't be too nice. "You're such a dunce," Weiss said playfully, softly shoving the younger girl.

"Aww Weiss, I'm a 100% serious!"

"I know you are," Weiss responded, still smiling. After a short pause, she continued, "Thanks, for making me smile."

"Anytime! It's one of my many skills," Ruby said with that cocky, crooked half smile Weiss had noticed she used mostly when talking about climbing.

"Whatever you say, Dolt," Weiss replied with her own smirk.

Ruby smiled at that. "Remember when you refused to call me by my name the first couple of times we met? I thought you hated me!"

The two girls reminisced about their first meeting, both laughing at the memory.

Eventually, their laughter died down, and both sat in silence, staring at the stars.

"We should probably head back soon, it's getting late, and I'm sure you'll want to be up to study tomorrow morning since I basically stole your whole afternoon. Plus, Yang will be wondering where we got to."

"Yeah, it's starting to get a little chilly, too," Weiss said as she stood up, stumbling a little bit.

Ruby reached up to steady the other girl, standing as she did so. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good, everything was just spinning for little bit there." To be honest, everything was still spinning, but Weiss left that part out.

Ruby looked down and met Weiss' eyes. Even with just the faint moonlight, she could tell they were slightly glazed over.

"Uhh Weiss… how many of those did you have?" She pointed at the red cup in her hand.

"Two. Same as you."

"I only had one?"

"Then what's that in your hand?"

"Uhh… a bottle of caffeine-free root beer?"

There was a short pause. "Ohh."

Seeing the look on Weiss' face, Ruby felt like she should explain. "Yeah, they keep it in the fridge for me cause, you know, I'm technically not 21 yet. The whole moving up two grades thing. I actually only had the drink Yang made earlier cause it was a special occasion, and I'm pretty sure she hardly put any alcohol in either of ours." Ruby paused nervously before continuing, "Weiss, I, uhh, think you might be a little drunk."

"No way. Even if you only had one earlier, that's still no reason for me to be drunk after two drinks. I'm not that much of a lightweight." Weiss said indignantly, crossing her arms.

"About that… so notice how there were so many athletes? Well it's basically a party for athletes and a few stragglers, athletes stick together, you know? And they all have super fast metabolisms and, well, most of them are huge, especially the football and basketball players. Even Yang is like at least a foot and a half taller than both of us and she's solid muscle and I'm rambling now. Basically, Yang tends to make the Yang Special with athletes in mind and they're probably 2-3 times stronger than anything you're used to… she probably forgot to adjust that for you when she made you drink earlier…"

For a second Weiss looked angry, but she calmed down quickly, knowing it wasn't Ruby's fault. "I hate your sister," Weiss sighed. "Let's go." The girl took a step forward, stumbling once again. She glanced at Ruby, reading her face. "I am not drunk! Just… dizzy."

"Maybe you shouldn't be walking in the dark, the ground's all uneven and stuff…" Ruby said hesitantly.

"What else do you want me to do, stay out here all night?"

"Well no, I'll just give you a ride! Wait here one sec!" Ruby reached out and grabbed the cup from Weiss' hand and took off jogging along the cliff's edge and then back into the trees. Weiss was left standing alone for about 20 seconds before she saw Ruby emerge back out from the trees with her hands empty.

"Where did you go?" the slightly shorter girl demanded.

"Sorry, there's a trash can a little further down the cliff, along one of the main paths of the park's trail system. I needed both hands," Ruby explained, placing herself in front of Weiss. "Now, hop on!"

"What?"

"I'm giving you a piggy-back ride back to the house, hop on."

"No, you're not."

"Aww, why not?"

"Because I'm not 5, Ruby."

"Pleaseeee Weiss? I don't want you to twist your ankle." Ruby turned to show off the silver eyed puppy face she had perfected, her voice dripping with that pout Weiss was so unbelievable vulnerable to.

"Fine."

Ruby's face broke into a smile. "Yay!"

"I strongly dislike you sometimes," Weiss said as she wrapped her arms around Ruby's neck.

"It's okay, I know you don't mean it!" Ruby said still smiling. "Uhh, are you not gonna jump on..?

"Nope."

Ruby sighed and crouched down just enough to wrap her arms around Weiss' legs, just under her knees. "Okay then." She stood up, taking Weiss with her, and then situating her more comfortably on her back. "Gotcha!"

"This is so embarrassing."

Ruby laughed before responding, "Don't worry, I'll put you down before we get close enough for anyone to see us, I know how much you'd hate that."

Weiss should have known Ruby would be too caring to let her be embarrassed in front of a crowd of people. She finally relaxed and let her chin rest comfortable on Ruby's shoulder. "Thanks, Ruby."

The younger girl just hummed in response and began walking towards the trees, back the way they had come. After walking along the path for a few minutes in silence, Weiss finally admitted to herself she was, just slightly, drunk. It made her second confession to herself much easier, although Weiss was a little surprised to hear herself say it outloud, "Ruby, you smell really nice. And your hair is soooo soft." Thank Dust Yang wasn't out here.

"Thanks, Weiss," Ruby said, a little confused by the compliment. By now the two could see the lights from the house reflecting off the night clouds. Ruby gently set Weiss down, "C'mon, let's get you home." She grabbed the older girl's hand, pausing to admire how easy it was to get lost in those deep, beautiful ice blue eyes before slowly leading Weiss towards the gate.


End file.
